Ten years later, Bruce Buffer remembers the night he failed Frank Mir

MMA is still a relatively new sport, and so looking back at past milestones often doesn’t involve too long of a lens. But it’s already been a decade since one of announcer Bruce Buffer’s biggest in-cage regrets – a moment most MMA fans remember for an entirely different reason.

“Right after the fight, the arguments started in the octagon,” Buffer told MMAjunkie. “Part of my job in the octagon is making sure the fighters are lined up with the referee so one of them gets their hand raised while I announce the winner. But everyone was arguing, there were debates everywhere, and my producer in my ear didn’t have any more information than I did.”

It was June 19, 2004, and Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center was playing host to UFC 48. While the night’s main event saw Ken Shamrock score a first-round knockout of Kimo Leopoldo, the fight everyone remembers is the co-feature between Frank Mir and Tim Sylvia.

With the UFC’s vacant heavyweight title on the line, Mir quickly took the fight to the floor and locked in one of the most memorable submissions in UFC history, scoring a technical submission win via armbar in just 50 seconds. Referee Herb Dean famously stopped the contest despite Sylvia’s refusal to tap, and both UFC officials and fans in attendance wondered exactly what had happened. Dean insisted Sylvia’s arm was broken and stood firm in his choice.

It wasn’t until after the result was read that replays revealed Dean was on the money with his assessment. But in the immediate aftermath, Buffer said he dropped the ball.

“Did he tap? Was it really broke?” Buffer remembered thinking at the time. “Tim was saying he was fine and didn’t tap, so should the fight have been stopped? Did Herb Dean make a mistake? What was the ruling on who was the champion?

“I admit I made a mistake and announced him with ‘the winner’ instead of ‘And … new!’ and I still feel terrible about it. I was so caught up in the chaos in the octagon that I messed it up. I felt like I’d let Frank down and that I’d let the fans down. Part of my job is to enhance the moment for the fans, and I know a lot of fighters look forward to one day hearing ‘And … new!’ while they put on the belt for the first time – and I didn’t do that on that occasion.”

Mir’s bizarre title win is the subject of a new UFC Fight Pass series that launches today entitled “Fightography.” Designed as a way to allow fans to watch notable fighters’ entire career in one location, not to mention watch a first-person retrospective from the featured athlete, “Fightography” debuts with Mir and will later feature “historic and legendary fighters like Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Kazushi Sakuraba,” according to UFC Fight Pass Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik.

In the video retrospective, Mir remembers the moment.

“You go out there and win the UFC heavyweight belt, and you do something in life that should be a great moment, and everyone is booing,” Mir recalled. “Even Bruce Buffer was thrown off and announced me as just the winner and not the new champion. I didn’t get any recognition. It was just a bad moment.”

Three months later, Mir’s career nearly ended after he was involved in a motorcycle accident. However, the resilient Mir (16-9 MMA, 14-9 UFC) would battle back toward his previous form, claiming the promotion’s interim heavyweight belt in 2008 by defeating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. That gave Buffer a chance to redeem himself, an opportunity that was not lost on “The Veteran Voice of the Octagon.”

“I apologized to Frank once I realized my mistake; I think I tracked him down backstage after the show,” Buffer said. “He was great about it. He knew how confused everyone was in the aftermath of that fight, but what else could I do but apologize?

“I still feel horrible about it, but I’m relieved he won the belt a second time against ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira so I could give him his moment.”

To see “Fightography,” not to mention all of Mir’s 23 UFC appearances, visit ufcfightpass.com.

And for more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.