Everything You Didn't Know About Boxing Announcer Michael Buffer

Though he's now a multimillionaire at the top of his game professionally and looking toward retirement, things haven't always been easy for Buffer. For example, he was an orphan, in the most literal possible sense. Born in 1944 to an enlisted man in the Navy, when the war was over his father and mother went their separate ways, and he was put into foster care, according to Boxing Monthly. Fortunately, he described his adoptive family as "wonderful."

Buffer did have the chance to meet his biological parents later in life, after he became famous and his father recognized him on TV. As it turns out, Buffer maintained relationships with both his foster family and his birth family for years afterwards. He also learned that his paternal (biological) grandfather was a boxer: Johnny Buff was a bantamweight champion back in the 1920s. He also has another connection to his biological family: his half-brother, Bruce Buffer, whom Michael met when he reconnected with his birth family, is now Michael's manager.

After serving for a few years in Vietnam, going through a few marriages, and having a handful of children, Buffer contracted, and beat, throat cancer, according to Boxing Insider.

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