Michael Buffer masterclass: Find out how Sportsmail got on when the voice of boxing showed us the ropes... and revealed the secrets of his success

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As Anthony Joshua and Carlos Takam face off for the cameras following their final press conference at Cardiff's National Museum, there are six far more amateur performers staring into the lens upstairs.

I, along with five other intrepid reporters, have come to the Welsh capital to learn how to be a boxing ring announcer under the tutelage of godfather MC, Michael Buffer.

We will undertake the 'Master of Buffer Association'. No, really. And the class will prove to be one of the most enlightening and embarrassing few hours of our lives. All in the name of fun, they said.

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Iconic ring announcer Michael Buffer has become the voice of boxing over the past 35 years

Before Anthony Joshua-Carlos Takam, Sportsmail's Daniel Matthews took part in a masterclass

Alongside a worrying number of photographers and video cameras, we are housed in a courtroom for the most public of trials. The workshop, we are told, would be split into four separate modules - preparation, pronunciation, presentation and performance.

But before we meet the main man, the MC for our MC class with an MC, the superbly-named Ian Furey-King, talks us through some house rules.

We are not to touch Mr Buffer's suit or do any 'rumbling' (use our host's now-literally-trademarked phrase). It's not entirely clear whether he is joking but neither are we given a chance to ask.

It's time for us to introduce ourselves to our classmates and the cameramen gleefully documenting our public humiliation.

I am given the unenviable task of following a man who refers to himself as 'Cheeky Sport Dave,' and who — to use the technical term — mugs the rest of us off royally.

A natural in front of the camera, Mr Dave performs a polished impression of Mr Buffer, leaving the whole room laughing and the other participants crying inside.

The 72-year-old revealed the secrets to the trade and how he has remained at the top

Buffer will be between the ropes for the heavyweight showdown in Cardiff on Saturday

Choosing to chase sympathy laughs rather than applause, I opt for the less-heralded MC approach of mumbling quietly and monotonously.

After meeting the rest of the lambs on their way to slaughter, we are finally introduced to Mr Buffer, a 72-year-old poster boy for dermatologists and dentists everywhere. 

He had, it turned out, been listening in all along from behind a curtain.

'Samuel,' he says in my direction, 'we need to work on your game'. It was an encouraging start.

Preparation

At 72, and after 35 years in the game, Buffer would be forgiven for winding down. But the American is booked to work every weekend between now and Christmas.

'I'm actually a survivor of throat cancer so I'm very, very careful with my voice,' Buffer, speaking on behalf of William Hill, the Official Sponsor of Joshua vs Takam later tells Sportsmail. 

'I'm eight years recovered now... I was actually ready to retire at that point but I was very lucky to have surgery and the right doctors. I didn't have to have chemotherapy or radiation and 30 days after surgery I was back to work.' 

The secret to staying vocally-in shape, he explains, is a well-rehearsed routine that ensures he looks and sounds the part come fight night.

Whenever and wherever he works, the first thing on Buffer's to-do list on checking into his hotel is to ensure his shirt is nice and crisp. Forget the mini-bar or the cable channels, the iron is 72-year-old's first port of call.

Buffer behind the microphone before the fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin

In Cardiff, the 72-year-old watches on as Sportsmail turn their hand to being a ring announcer

Found deeper in his suitcase are sachets of honey and lemon tea — natural remedies for a sore throat — and moisturiser to keep his face gleaming under the bright lights, even into his eighth-decade.

Equally important are menial-seeming vocal routines – the kind you're taught in school but assume no performer actually does in real life.

'La, la, la, mum, mum, mum,' is his Warm Up 101 and something he performs even as fighters are walking to the ring. After his demonstration it's our turn to get those chords firing on all cylinders.

Having lulled everyone into a false sense of security with my low-key introduction, I repeat after him with all the gusto of the fan boy I am.

'Very good,' is his verdict. 15-all. 

Pronunciation 

Forgive the Nobel-worthy analysis, but you will struggle to survive 35 years in ring announcing if you fail to grasp basic vernacular.

And out of respect for the fighters he introduces, Buffer works hard to ensure he learns how to correctly say names, hometowns and nicknames – whatever the language.

Boxing is a global sport and it is fighters from Thailand and Vietnam, he reveals, whose names have proved most challenging to say over the years.

The voice of boxing gives an approving nod after our reporter's latest efforts to be an MC

As Joshua and Takam faced off, some far more amateur performers faced the cameras upstairs

But it is one from much closer to home that has arguably brought him the most grief.

The veteran MC called much of the pay-per-view career of Oscar De La Hoya and tended to rrrrroll the final letter of the Mexican-American's first name.

But his insistence on referring to the Golden Boy as 'Oscarrr' once prompted an angry academic with far too much time on his hands to confront him ringside and inform him that in Spanish, a single r is never rolled. 

Buffer, who admits to having flunked the two years of Spanish he studied in school, reminded the man that this was showbusiness, not Spanish class. And in showbusiness, you're allowed to be liberal with the rules, thus rendering the academic's point — and arguably this whole module — totally redundant.

Presentation 

As a boxing announcer, it's not a great deal of use sounding the part if you look like you've just climbed out of a bin.

And even for our class the 72-year-old is as immaculately turned out as ever. His usual ring attire of dinner jacket and bow tie is gone. 

Instead he dons a navy blazer, checked-shirt and tortoise-shell-rimmed glasses. The tie and pocket square are matching. Of course they are, this isn't amateur hour.

Buffer gave the students in his class advice on how to present yourself when behind the mic

My classmates, on the other hand are wearing a mix of tracksuits, shirts and caps. In true Sportsmail style I raced into the clubhouse lead, having been the only one to show up in a suit and tie.

To help out his bedraggled class, Buffer gives a quick run through of basic do's and dont's. Always do up your top button. Noted. Only wear a bow tie with a dinner jacket. Basic, mate. 'Never be like Donald Trump and have your tie down by your scrotum'. Cue furious note-taking. 

Performance 

And so it had arrived. The lambs are at the slaughterhouse door.

The time is nigh for us to put everything we have learned from the master into one final ring announcement.

But first, we are tasked with devising our own tag-line. Buffer's catchphrase-that-must-not-be-named was inspired, he reveals, by the great Muhammad Ali, who used to say he was 'ready to rumble' ahead of fight night.

We have no such inspiration and only 60 seconds. Predictably, the results are a mix of the hilarious and the horrific.

'Cheeky Sport Dave' outdoes everyone again with the clever: 'Let the fist see the face'. Know it all.

Each member of the class was tasked with announcing one of Joshua's professional fights

I plump for the rather less original: 'Let's get this show on the road'. I know. The job offers from creative-writing agencies worldwide arrive almost immediately. 

We are each handed a ring card, featuring details of a previous fight starring Anthony Joshua. How we call the fight is up to us. 

I'm given AJ's clash Dominic Breazeale from 2016 and within moments am praying to be on the end of the Joshua right hand that did for the American that night.

Standing in front of our tutor, I stare at my card rather than the crowd with an almost homicidal degree of concentration.

Our reporter was responsible for calling Joshua's victory over Dominic Breazeale in 2016

Here goes. And here goes quite well until my voice cracks up midway through my own catchprase. You couldn't make it up. A puberty aftershock at the age of 24 and at the worst possible moment.

Imploring the floor to swallow me whole, I am given the chance to atone for my error. By this time, my self-esteem is so far beneath the floor the nerves have disappeared. Except from in my hand, which doesn't seem to have got the memo and won't stop trembling.

If Ali floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee, I was screaming in a half-American accent and shaking like a washing machine.

But eventually it was all over and we had passed the course. We had achieved our MBA and a hitherto unachievable level of embarrassment.

There was time only for one last pearl of wisdom from Furey-King : Being a ring announcer, he rightly surmised, 'is not a bunch of words. But an art form'. 

Michael Buffer was speaking at the Master of Buffer Association Masterclass for Official Title Sponsor, William Hill, ahead of Joshua vs Takam. For unbeatable odds on round betting, head here