Kody Mommaerts | |
---|---|
Born | |
Other names | Big Mo |
Occupation | Ring Announcer |
Years active | 2019–present |
Height | 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) |
Website | ThisIsBigMo.com |
Kody Mommaerts (born October 23, 1995) more commonly known as Big Mo [1] is an American entertainer and combat sports ring announcer. [2] He is currently the official Ring Announcer for the boxing promotion BOXXER which airs on Sky Sports, [3] [4] and BYB Extreme Fighting Series which airs on BEIN Sports XTRA and Fight Network. [5] [6]
Kody Robert Mommaerts was born in Oceanside, California on October 23, 1995.
From an early age, Mommaerts was very involved in sports and athletics. Mommaerts’ first trained in Shotokhan Karate which began his love for martial arts. He trained in the discipline for nearly 7 years alongside Karateka’s such as Kamran Madani. [7]
Mommaerts attended Monarch High School in Louisville, Colorado, where he played American football as an offensive lineman. [8] [9] After winning a state championship in 2013, he played college football at the Division I level and attend the University of Northern Colorado. [10] [11]
Mommaerts attended the University of Northern Colorado where he played football for 5 years as an offensive lineman, in a backup role. [11]
Mommaerts graduated early with his Bachelor's degree in Business Marketing from the Monfort College of Business. With football eligibility still remaining, he pursued, and received a Master's Degree in Business Administration [12]
Mommaerts was also an award-winning student, competing in, [13] and winning international business competitions. [14] [15]
Big Mo is currently the official Ring Announcer for the boxing promotion BOXXER owned by promoter Ben Shalom which broadcasts on Sky Sports. [16]
Mommaerts also announced the Eddie Hall vs. Hafþór Björnsson fight in Dubai in March 2022.
Mommaerts was the Ring Announcer for Netflix’s 1st live sporting event Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson on November 15th, 2024. [17] [18]
Big Mo is currently the Ring Announcer for BYB Extreme Fighting Series [19]
Mommaerts' first job was with Sparta Sports & Entertainment where he was brought on as a color-commentator. Shortly after, he took over the ring announcer role. He is also the ring announcer for XMMA. [20]
Mommaerts was the announcer for the first ever Lethwei fight in North America, for the rematch between Dave Leduc and Cyrus Washington held at the Outlaw Saloon in Cheyenne, Wyoming. [21]
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2022 | Mike (miniseries) | Announcer |
2022 - Current | Sky Sports Boxing | Big Mo (Himself) |
2024 | Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson | Big Mo (Himself) |
After his first year in the industry, Mommaerts was named the '2019 Ring Announcer on the Rise' [22] by The Scrap News. He received the recognition again in 2020. [23]
He was named the 'Bareknuckle Ring Announcer of the Year' by the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame in 2023. [24]
Michael Gerard Tyson is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005, with a post-retirement fight in 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. He reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990. Tyson won his first 19 professional fights by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. Claiming his first belt at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old, Tyson holds the record as the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles, as well as the only heavyweight to unify them in succession. The following year, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds of the first round. In 1990, Tyson lost the undisputed heavyweight championship when he was knocked out by underdog Buster Douglas, making it one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
Bare-knuckle boxing is a full-contact combat sport based on punching without any form of padding on the hands. The sport as it is known today originated in 17th-century England and differs from street fighting as it follows an accepted set of rules.
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Michael Buffer is an American ring announcer for boxing, professional wrestling, and National Football League events. Pioneering a distinct announcing style in which he rolls certain letters and adds other inflections to a fighter’s name, and known for his trademarked catchphrase: "Let's get ready to rumble!", he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports and weightlifting. For boxing, the range is above 115 lb (52.2 kg) and up to 118 lb (53.5 kg). In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between 53 and 55 kilograms. In MMA, bantamweight is 126–135 lb (57.2–61.2 kg).
Lethwei or Burmese boxing is a full contact combat sport originating from Myanmar and is regarded as one of the most brutal martial arts in the world. Lethwei fighters are allowed to use stand-up striking techniques such as kicks, knees, elbows and punches, and the use of headbutts is also permitted. Fighters compete bareknuckle, wrapping their hands with only tape and gauze. Disallowed in most combat sports, headbutts are important weapons in a Lethwei fighter's arsenal, giving Lethwei its name of the "Art of nine limbs". This, combined with its bareknuckle nature, gave Lethwei a reputation for being one of the bloodiest and most violent martial arts. Lethwei is the last remaining sport in the world that allows headbutts. Although popular throughout Myanmar, Lethwei has been primarily and historically associated with the Karen people of the Kayin State; the vast majority of competitive Lethwei fighters are ethnolinguistically of Karen descent.
Mike Goldberg is an American play-by-play commentator currently working with BYB Extreme Fighting Series and ProBox TV, both alongside color commentator Paulie Malignaggi. He is mainly known for his work with the Ultimate Fighting Championship from 1997 until his departure in 2016. He also worked for Bellator MMA from June 2017 until April 2021.
Paul Malignaggi is an Italian-American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017 and has since worked as a boxing commentator and analyst, currently with BYB Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series and ProBox TV alongside Mike Goldberg. He held the IBF junior welterweight title from 2007 to 2008, and the WBA (Regular) welterweight title from 2012 to 2013. Malignaggi competed once as a bare knuckle boxer in 2019 in a loss to MMA fighter Artem Lobov. Malignaggi was particularly known for his hand speed, boxing ability, athleticism, and durable chin.
A ring announcer is an in-ring employee or contractor for a boxing, professional wrestling or mixed martial arts event or promotion, who introduces the competitors to the audience.
Benito Concepcion "Benny" Ricardo is a former American football placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) (1976-1984) for the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings, and the San Diego Chargers. He played college football at San Diego State University. He is distinguished as being the first Paraguayan to play in the NFL. As a Minnesota Viking, Ricardo led the NFC in scoring in 1983 with 108 points.
Deontay Leshun Wilder is an American professional boxer. He held the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title from 2015 to 2020. By winning the title, Wilder became the first American world heavyweight champion since 2007, which was the longest period of time in boxing history without an American heavyweight champion.
Showtime Championship Boxing is a television boxing program that aired on Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it was broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. Showtime Championship Boxing, which was very similar to HBO World Championship Boxing, featured Mauro Ranallo on play-by-play, Al Bernstein as the color analyst, Jimmy Lennon as ring announcers, and Jim Gray as reporter.
Tyson Luke Fury is a British professional boxer. He has held multiple world heavyweight championships, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the Ring magazine title twice between 2015 and 2022, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title from 2020 to 2024. He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title during his first reign as champion.
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held the unified world heavyweight championship since 2021, and the Ring magazine title since 2022. He has held the undisputed championship in two weight classes—cruiserweight and heavyweight—and reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from May to June 2024.
Dhafir Harris, known as Dada 5000, is a Bahamian-American retired mixed martial artist and Combat sports promoter. He competed in the Heavyweight division of Bellator MMA in 2016.
Jake Joseph Paul is an American professional boxer, influencer and actor. He began his career posting videos on Vine in September 2013 and had amassed 5.3 million followers and 2 billion views before the app was discontinued. He launched his YouTube channel Jake Paul in May 2014, and has ranked on the Forbes list as one of the highest paid YouTube creators in 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2023.
World Lethwei Championship was a Lethwei promotion based in Yangon, Myanmar. The promotion brought the millennia-old Burmese martial of Lethwei to UFC Fight Pass and showcased it to the world. The WLC events combined the historic traditions of Lethwei with modern entertainment.
BYB Extreme Fighting Series (BYB) is a bare knuckle fighting organization founded in 2015 by former MMA fighter Dhafir ("Dada 5000") Harris and Mike Vazquez, former owner of NASCAR team HRT Motorsports. Harris rose to fame from his staging of backyard bare knuckle fights which went viral online and subsequently became the subject of the Billy Corben documentary, Dawg Fight. BYB is an abbreviation of "Back Yard Brawl", a nod to the company's origins. BYB's fights are held in its patented Trigon ring or cage, which it touts as the smallest fighting surface in combat sports.
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship United Kingdom (BKFC UK) is the British branch of the American bare-knuckle boxing promotion Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC). In September 2022, it was announced that Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship had formed Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship UK (BKFC UK) by acquiring the UK-based Bare Fist Boxing Association (BFBA). As of August 2024, BKFC UK has held 8 events, all of which have taken place in England.
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Thailand (BKFC Thailand), officially known as Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Asia (BKFC Asia), was a bare-knuckle boxing promotion based in Pattaya, Thailand. It is the officially licensed branch of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) in Asia. BKFC Asia is the first promotion in Thailand and Asia to receive full international licensing and sanctioning for bare-knuckle boxing. Founded in 2021, BKFC Asia has held 5 total events as of November 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link)