This time last year, Stone Cold Steve Austin was telling Ariel Helwani that UFC should hire legendary WWE play-by-play man Jim Ross. Today, that request gets one step closer to becoming a reality: Good Ol’ J.R. is set to make his MMA play-by-play debut at the upcoming Battleground MMA pay-per-view alongside … oh God, Chael Sonnen?
From MMA News:
The WWE Hall Of Fame announcer “Good Ole’ JR” will team up with “The Gangster from West Linn, Oregon” Chael Sonnen for the event that is scheduled to take place in JR’s home-state of Oklahoma on October 3rd.
Ross and Sonnen will handle the play-by-play duties for the event, which features Ryan Couture (8-3), son of UFC legend Randy Couture, challenging Jonny “King of Late Night” Carson (11-6) in the main event.
Also scheduled for the event is an exciting eight-man tournament in the Welterweight division, one that is filled with former UFC and Strikeforce veterans. The tourney consists of Dennis Hallman (53-15-2), Brock Larson (37-8), Roan Carneiro (17-9), Luigi Fioravanti (24-11), Cody McKenzie (15-4), David Mitchell (14-4), Trey Houston (10-2) and Chris Honeycutt (4-0).
I’d spend three hours listening to Jim Ross and Chael Sonnen talk about what they had for breakfast, so we’ll consider the fighting a bonus.
Here’s a sampling of what we can expect: