Longtime UFC announcer Bruce Buffer to release autobiography in 2012

With mixed-martial-arts autobiographies currently among the most popular book titles in the sports category, the "Veteran Voice of the Octagon" is getting in on the action.

Bruce Buffer, the longtime emcee of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, recently announced his plans to pen an autobiography, which he says has already been purchased by Random House.

While the project has not yet been officially announced, Buffer said it's currently titled, "It's Time!" and will debut sometime around Christmas 2012.

Buffer, the half-brother and manager of fellow famed announcer Michael Buffer, made his octagon debut way back in 1996 at UFC 8. It would be UFC 13 before he became a staple of the company's broadcasts, and even that came only after he was able to get the UFC featured in an episode of "Friends."

Buffer, who recounted the story at this past weekend's UFC Fan Expo Houston 2011, called the move "the best hand of poker I've ever played" – which, of course, is no empty boast from a man who's proven himself as a solid semi-pro poker player.

An Oklahoma native, Buffer is the grandson of former bantamweight world champion boxer Johnny Buff. Despite a family tradition in boxing, Buffer gravitated more toward martial artists such as Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee. A 1992 private sparring session with Royce Gracie – one year before the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist would turn the martial arts world upside down – proved the value of the grappling arts to Buffer, and he was instantly a fan of the UFC when it was launched a short time later.

via:mmajunkie