Gus Johnson To Call The Primetime Network TV Debut Of MMA On CBS

Monday, May 19, 2008


Amazing news for MMA fans this evening as it turns out that the announcer that will be calling the broadcast television debut of the Sport on CBS is none other than Gus Johnson. From MMA Rated via Five Ounces Of Pain....

Officials from CBS and EliteXC held a press conference and autograph signing in Studio City, Calif. earlier this afternoon in anticipation of the first mixed martial arts event to be broadcast on live primetime television on Saturday, May 31.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned from those attending the press conference that Gus Johnson has been announced as the lead play-by-play announcer for the historic event.
Johnson will be joined in the booth by Showtime announcer Mauro Ranallo and former UFC middleweight champion Frank Shamrock for CBS' first broadcast two Saturdays from now. Gus has called many a Boxing match in his day, so this should be a great fit.

I'm not sure about the fighters themselves (because I'm not up on my Elite XC), but he gets a couple of stars in Kimbo Slice and American Gladiator Gina Carano (Crush), and a title bout as well.

CBS EliteXC Card For 5/31

Gus & Mauro: A Match Made In Heaven (MMA Rated)
Gus Johnson to call play-by-play during EliteXC: Primetime on CBS (Five Ounces Of Pain)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 4:53 PM

23 Comments:

Joe Rogan must be fuming - no CBS/MMA gig, NBC won't bring back Fear Factor, and "Mind of Mencia" season 4 debuts this week.

Doneycat said...
May 19, 2008, 5:16:00 PM  

Hahaha....great call Doney.

May 19, 2008, 5:20:00 PM  

And Mencia had a stand up special last night...must've stolen at least 50-60 jokes.

TJX said...
May 19, 2008, 5:23:00 PM  

the hot chick from american gladiators AND gus johnson.....i'm down.

-dan

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 5:24:00 PM  

I'm not too excited about this... I don't know how experienced Gus is with MMA or judo moves... on play-by-play, he needs to really be up on everything. Having Shamrock in there will be a big help. I hear good things about Ranallo as well. As long as this doesn't become a Gus-lead show, I retract my lack of excitement.

Zak said...
May 19, 2008, 5:27:00 PM  

zak, In Gus We Trust...it worked for Frerotte so it has to work with GuJo.

GMoney said...
May 19, 2008, 5:37:00 PM  

WHY THE HELL IS GUS JOHNSON DOING THIS MATCH? HE HAS AS MUCH BUSINESS DOING MMA AS JEMELE HILL DID ON THE ESPN COLLEGE BASKETBALL COVERAGE DURING THE TOURNAMENT. HE SUCKS!!!

/Joe D

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 5:47:00 PM  

@ Zak, he has done boxing before...MMA is the same thing only you can kick and give up the back and.......

TJX said...
May 19, 2008, 5:47:00 PM  

Gus Johnson is doing the match just to piss you off Joe D.

Now go make a stupid comment about us circle jerking to him.

TJX said...
May 19, 2008, 5:48:00 PM  

Yeah, way to represent anon. And ss, everyone knows you had a little accident when you read that headline. Why did you change your little picture, embarrassed about your man crush?

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 5:53:00 PM  

Actually, my picture was photoshopped.....it had your mom on there at first so I changed it.

TJX said...
May 19, 2008, 5:56:00 PM  

Ahh...silence I see?


I win!



Anyways, I've listened to Ranaullo before and he is a great announcer....he and Gus should work well together.

TJX said...
May 19, 2008, 6:05:00 PM  

Is it too late to get Joe D & SS on the undercard? I would have SS as the early favorite at 3-1, unless Joe D got Johnnie Mortoned a few comments ago.

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 6:32:00 PM  

Joe D got Mortoned twice over.

TJX said...
May 19, 2008, 6:39:00 PM  

http://www.sportable.com/2008/05/13/sportable-spot-episode-50-gus-johnson-on-new-knicks-coach-mike-dantoni/

Post this as an update. Gus Talks about the fight in this interview with us.

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 7:12:00 PM  

So exactly how does Gus taste AA?

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 7:39:00 PM  

Sportable dude: if you would have sent the Gus Johnson interview to AA last week (since the post on your site is dated May 13), you would have been out in front on the story.

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 8:18:00 PM  

Gus is the perfect fit. MMA is a sport that requires over-the-top wall-to wall SCREAMING!!!!!

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 9:27:00 PM  

Calling something that is to sport what snuff films are to cinema is no way to get Jim Nantz's job, which in a perfect world, Gus would have.

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2008, 10:15:00 PM  

I have no idea how Gus will do, but I trust that he'll be fine. Regardless, hearing him on the call as Kimbo KO's Thompson will be worth it.

And if not, then there's always Gina Carano!

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 1:36:00 AM  

There seems to be a fair amount of well-known fighters in MMA on this card to make this event interesting (to name two: Robbie Lawler and Phil Baroni). This does seem to be an interesting lineup.

... and I'm sure Rogan is doing mighty fine with his UFC gig on PPV.

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 7:55:00 AM  

Gus Johnson's screaming makes baby Jesus cry.

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 1:04:00 PM  

Ranallo should be the voice. Having Gus in there is dumb. You don't need 2 PxP guys in one booth, and I doubt Johnson would know a Kimura from a Kimora Simmons. Yeah, I got nothin--doesn't matter. This is a bad move.

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 4:33:00 PM  

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