Two years ago, Ring Kody ‘Big Mo’ Mommaerts told me that his dream was to spend the center of Madison Square Garden and command the microphone. On Friday night, he will do exactly that, announcing the trilogy fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano on the most emblematic stage of boxing.
«Start with the end in mind,» he told me, repeating the mantra of a former American football coach who is caught with him since his game days. That mentality helped transform visualization in reality.
‘When I announced smaller places or smaller fights, I pretended that I wasn’t there. I pretended that I was in Madison Square Garden, who was in the O2 Arena, which was at the Royal Albert Hall. These incredible places in which I have arrived … It really started from there and now everything is filling the circle. »
At 29, Mommaerts is now the youngest teacher of the ceremonies that operate at the highest levels of combat sports, a voice that becomes familiar in boxing, MMA and bare knuckle events alike. But Friday night is more than another line in the curriculum. It is personal.
«It will feel more validly internally than anything else, really,» he says. ‘So Paul-Tyson felt, and that is what MSG will be. I have been in this industry for some years. I came in a complete stranger. Not only to announce, but for entertainment, transmission, media, boxing, everything. I built this from scratch … So when I can do shows like this, it’s almost like: I was right. It was intelligent to bet on myself.
It is just over six months after announcing one of the most viewed fights in modern history: Jake Paul against Mike Tyson, compared to 72,000 fans at the AT&T stadium by Dallas Cowboys and an estimated 60 million households in Netflix. That event changed his career. Now, Netflix has brought it back to the historical end of one of the most important boxing rivalries: Taylor vs. Serrano III.
Kody ‘Big Mo’ Mommaerts is now the youngest teacher of ceremonies operating at the highest levels of combat sports, but Friday’s confrontation is more than another line in his curriculum
On Friday, he will announce the trilogy fight between Katie Taylor (left) and Amanda Serrano (right) at Madison Square Garden, where he has always dreamed of command
Big Mo is just over six months after announcing one of the most viewed fights in modern history: Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, compared to 72,000 fans at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas Cowboys
The two women, sport pioneers and the first to ensure seven -digit wallets, head a women’s card in the same place where their saga began. For Mommaerts, it is a complete circle moment, and one will appreciate in the coming years.
Despite the nature of live television and a live audience, Mommáerts no longer gets nervous, not really. Not after nights like Paul-Tyson. Not after sands like O2.
«I really don’t understand them,» he says. ‘After I did Shields-Marshall in the O2, I knew how it was. What to expect to advance. What solves the nerves is the fact that I am very well prepared.
‘Anyone who knows me knows that I am meticulous. I try not to read a card. That requires memorization and a level of understanding of what is happening. That calms me knowing that I am prepared for anything that has thrown me.
From their point of view, crowds do not even feel so different. ‘There were 75,000 people at Cowboy Stadium. But from where I am standing, looking directly at the transmission chamber, my field of vision only has a few thousand. Start feeling everything the same.
He speaks like someone who has already imagined everything and that is because he has done it. ‘It’s as if I had already lived in my mind. As if I already turned to my left and I have seen Katie Taylor. I turned to my right and I saw Amanda. I turn around and face the crowd, and I see Madison Square’s garden.
«It’s all: how I am putting my suit, what I am seeing when I get in the ring, the signs … Everything turns there and then feels that I had already done it on the night of fighting.»
But his work does not stop in visualization. Boxing is chaos, and being ready for last minute curved balls is part of the concert. ‘It happens all the time. Boxing moves 100 miles per hour and is almost never established. It is always: hey, this sponsor needs this, or this person is now dating this person, or here are the anthem singers and want to be introduced like this. So I’m used to that. I will write it, I will make sure to say exactly what the transmission or the client needs in that case. That is just part of that.
Despite the nature of live television and a live audience, Mommáerts no longer gets nervous
Mommaerts insists that he has already imagined announcing the fight, and says that «lives» in his mind
The lifestyle has also changed it. Late nights are exchanged for sleep management, voice care and flights through time areas.
«Handling sleep and trips is great,» he says. ‘I really don’t have a body clock. My body hits six, seven hours, and it’s like: it’s time to get up. But yes, my work is the full presenter mode, it is very formal, very done, very ‘ignition’. So, when I am not in that environment, I am a little more relaxed and private. My social battery has changed.
That balance, between the energy on stage and loneliness outside the stage, is something that is still refining. But if your rapid increase through ads rows demonstrates something, it is a fast apprentice.
‘Months ago, Paul was doing against Tyson. That changed me a lot. Everything happened very fast, and I had to learn at dizzying speed, which is what I wanted, » he says. ‘When I started the promoters of cold calls at age 24, I had no experience, I did not go to school for transmission. Honestly, I would not have hired me either.
Instead, you have learned. ‘Working with Sky, Netflix, Dazn, Networks of TV in France, Poland … I have been a sponge. The people with whom I work have more experience, and only try to absorb everything I can. I am very active, more active than many MCS, and I am grateful for that. It has helped me elaborate my style.
With Madison Square Garden now reviewed the list, what follows?
«I don’t know,» he laughs. Maybe Wembley. Maybe Tottenham. I will have to choose a new goal. But this, on Friday night, will feel like something bigger than a box to mark. You will feel as if it built this. As if he were right when believing in vision.
Whatever the next objective that ends, did not bet against Big Mo getting there.
After all, he has already lived in his mind.
(Tagstotranslate) Dailymail
