Sean Grande has an inkling what he’ll be up against when he makes his debut as Bellator MMA’s play-by-play announcer on Friday night.
Grande knows the man he’s replacing, Sean Wheelock, was familiar to fans, a point of stability in a company prone to what seemed a never-ending series of changes over the years.
And since taking the deep dive into the MMA world over the past several months, Grande has also come to understand that a segment of the fan base likes to pretend they were in attendance at UFC 1 and dismisses anyone who started following the sport after them as a “noob.”
“No one likes the new guy, I get it, and I’m ready for it,” Grande said in an interview with MMAFighting.com.
Besides, it’s not like this is the first time Grande has followed a well-liked figure.
He’s been the radio voice of the Boston Celtics since 2001, a seat held for decades by broadcasting legend Johnny Most. So he’s not overly concerned with the inevitable Twitter trolls who will be ready to pounce when he takes his seat next to color commentator Jimmy Smith at Bellator 140 at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena.
“I called the Minnesota Timberwolves after Kevin Harlan left,” Grande said. “Sean McDonough called [Boston College] football before me. Howard David, one of the great NFL voices with the Jets and Dolphins, had the Celtics before me, and that’s the same seat Johnny Most had all those years. So trust me, I know what goes with the territory.”
As part of the ongoing remodeling job undertaken by Bellator CEO Scott Coker, the company wanted a play-by-play announcer with “Big 4” sports gravitas. The 43-year-old Grande fit the bill. The New York City native attended Boston University and has done much of his most notable work in the city. In addition to his Celtics gig, Grande has called Boston College football and does fill-in Boston Red Sox work. He’s also called the Timberwolves, 15 NCAA hockey Division 1 championship games, and national college football for ABC.
Grande isn’t going to act like he’s a longtime MMA fan who is getting his dream gig. Bellator and Spike first approached him about potentially working for the company in March. The more Grande researched the sport, the more he became intrigued by what those of us who have been around awhile call “the MMA bubble,” the self-contained subculture in which the sport seems to be the only thing that matters.
“The fans are so passionate, so knowledgeable, and so into the sport,” Grande said. “You can’t fake it with them. I’m not going to come out there on Friday and rattle off the history of the sport. But here’s the great thing about jumping into a sport like MMA which is 20 years old: It’s all there in front of you. It’s right there at your fingertips, and all you have to do is make the time to look it up and learn.”
“if I’m studying the history of the Visigoths, there’s no YouTube footage of them, there’s no “Visigoths This Week,'” Grande continued. “But if I want to learn about Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn, it’s all there. It’s been a crash course getting up to speed these past couple months and it has been a whole lot of fun.”
Grande’s Celtics deal allows for a certain number of dates in which he can work other gigs, so he’ll call be able to call Bellator events on nights that conflict with basketball.
He was originally slated to begin with Bellator 141 on Aug. 28, but the debut was pushed up to Friday’s card, meaning he’ll be doing a lot of studying this week. Ultimately, Grande wants to impress upon MMA fans that he’s growing to love the sport and isn’t just a big name dropping in on MMA for the sake of an easy paycheck.
“What I want the fans to know is that I’m not a guy who sees myself as this big, important Big 4 sports guy who is parachuting in on a niche sport,” Grande said. “I took this job because I believe in what Bellator and the people at Spike TV. They’ve got an exciting product, they’re building an audience with a fresh approach to the fights, and I’m thrilled to become a part of it.”