Ranallo set for WWE, Bellator, Mayweather calls
Mauro Ranallo is back in the faux fight game.
Ranallo, who split with WWE amid the type of controversy not even its creative team could script, announced his return Thursday to call the action for the sports entertainment company’s feeder system, NXT.
Ranallo has a date on the pay-per-view broadcast team for Bellator NYC: Sonnen vs. Silva tonight at Madison Square Garden. Ranallo will handle play-by-play with longtime Bellator colour commentator Jimmy Smith for the MMA promotion’s anticipated card headlined by Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva.
The biggest, baddest bouts in Bellator history on the fight game’s grandest stage? You bet.
The richest card Ranallo will call this year? Not quite. Ranallo was named this week as the playby-play announcer for the mega fight between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and boxing great Floyd Mayweather.
Ranallo, a veteran combat sports announcer, will have the best seat in the house for a tripleheader of fight promotions that has made him the main event voice of 2017.
“I’ve never been more successful than I am right now,” Ranallo said by phone as he walked the streets outside MSG.
Bellator, the No. 2 MMA promotion behind UFC in the United States, loaded its card for its MSG debut. MMA great Fedor Emelianenko fights Matt Mitrione, and Phil Davis anchors the undercard against Ryan Bader in a light heavyweight title fight.
Ranallo and Bellator seem like a natural fit. But his return to WWE following a stint calling “Smackdown” went off the rails in April, a bit of a surprise to all but wrestling insiders. His nearly two-year run ended amid stories he had been bullied by a broadcast colleague.
“I was willing to walk away from my dream job, let’s leave it at that,” Ranallo said. “In order for me to do that, I had to be true to my convictions and what makes you a human being.”
Ranallo will also be behind the mike for the sporting event of the summer when McGregor and Mayweather fight in a boxing match Aug. 26 in Las Vegas. Al Bernstein will handle the colour with Paul Maglianaggi. Jim Gray is the sideline reporter.
“This is the money fight,” Ranallo said. “This is a sporting spectacle, nothing more. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I equate it to the Battle of the Sexes with Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. It’s Evel Knievel attempting to jump over Snake Canyon.”