Renee Paquette, host of Throwing Down with Renee & Miesha and former WWE announcer, has a move to mixed martial arts all mapped out.
Renee Paquette has a fantasy turn to mixed martial arts (MMA) all planned out with a little help from co-host Miesha Tate, husband Jon Moxley and heavyweight fighter Josh Barnett.
Paquette recently told her SiriusXM co-host Tate that she would be willing to take up one MMA fight for the experience. The Throwing Down with Renee & Miesha host elaborated on her dream debut.
“My husband [Moxley] for sure,” she tells MMAMania.com of who will be in her corner. “I feel like his s—t talking skills are something I need a little bit more. I just like his swagger for my entrance and feel like I can lean on him for that. Josh Barnett chimed in on Twitter saying he thinks he can scrounge up enough change from the couch cushion for me for this fight that I’m conjuring up. I think he would be a great person… I think Miesha would have to be the third, of course.
“I would always joke that my walkout music would be ‘Bicycle Race’ by Queen. Maybe ‘Under Pressure’? I feel like you can’t go wrong with ‘Under Pressure’, it’s a crowd-pleaser. People can really get behind it.”
Moxley, who is present during the interview, protests “Under Pressure”.
Interesting.. Who would you want to see Renee square off with if she every decided to step in the cage?
Hear more from @ReneePaquette & @MieshaTate on “Throwing Down” at 2p ET on SXM Fight Nation with guests @MeganOlivi, @lionheartasmith, & @AmericanTopTeam‘s Dan Lambert. #AEW pic.twitter.com/VSu6Kfbdy0
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) September 20, 2021
“F—k, that’s terrible,” Moxley chimes in. “‘Bicycle’ is better than that s—t.”
As for an opponent, Paquette had an unexpected tongue-in-cheek answer.
“I would say celebrity crossover fight. I guess it should be a woman. I kind of liken this to Tonya Harding when she started boxing, so maybe I can get Tonya Harding to dust off her boxing gloves and we can go at it. Not that we have any beef between us, to begin with, but because I’m basically modelling my pro-career off of her pro-fighting career.
For the uninitiated, Paquette is a Canadian-born broadcaster who got her big break on The Score Television Network as one of the host’s of Right After Wrestling, a pro-wrestling studio show later renamed Aftermath. She subsequently spent eight years with WWE as an on-camera personality in various roles before parting ways with the company and launching her Oral Sessions podcast.
“I’ve watched along basically since 2008, probably is when I started getting into it,” she says of her MMA fandom. “When they had their first show in Montreal [UFC 83]. I was able to go to that first show. GSP was fighting and to see him in that element and to hear those kicks and thuds connecting — it was my first experience with MMA… It’s constantly on in our house. It’s been in and around my life for quite some time.”
Paquette also reflects on working with ESPN’s Arda Ocal and famed combat sports commentary Mauro Ranallo on Aftermath.
“It makes me so happy. It’s really so cool. It blows my mind to look back on it. I’ll use Arda as an example, everything he has been able to do,” she gushes. “Showing up on ESPN, that dude just works so hard. He just makes it work whether it’s him doing NHL, him covering video games, jumping on SportsCenter. He just finds a way to just get in there and get that work done. I couldn’t be more proud of him and the career that he’s been able to carve out for himself.
“Mauro Ranallo, one of the best voices in all of combat sports. The fact that I was able to start my career around him. That was one of my first experiences with being around anyone of his caliber. Even when he joined WWE for a little bit, it was so nice to be able to see him there and being able to reconnect with him and follow his career.
Catch Throwing Down w/ Renee & Miesha Monday’s from 2 to p.m. ET on SiriusXM Fight Nation channel 156 or download now wherever you get your podcasts.
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