Big Mo, the new voice of boxing, wants you to listen – no, really listen

Independent

6 days ago

I wanna say this without sounding like a d***,' Kody Mommaerts starts. His job, after all, involves selecting the right words. And though the stakes are lower on a Zoom call with The Independent than when a billion-dollar company entrusts him with a live microphone, the ring announcer still considers his words – and delivery – carefully.
In this case, it is all to do with humility, and his concern that an analogy for his career might be misinterpreted as arrogance. 'I used to play video games as a kid,' says Mommaerts, widely known as 'Big Mo'. 'I don't play much anymore, but there was a phrase called 'speedrunning'. 'How quickly can I beat this game?' In a way... I've kind of speedrun announcing. I don't want that to come across as d***ish!'
It's okay, he's allowed to say it. Firstly, he is just over six months removed from announcing one of the most-watched fights of all time, in Jake Paul 's boxing match with Mike Tyson – a bout that played out in front of more than 72,000 fans in Dallas, and more than 60 million households live on Netflix. Secondly, Mommaerts has already ticked off boxing, MMA, bare-knuckle fighting events and more, at an elite level. Thirdly, at 29 years old, he is the youngest MC at the top end of combat sports.
And finally (on this taster of a list, at least), he is about to fulfil his dream: announcing at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Although, in a way, Mommaerts has already done it.
He can explain that contradiction. 'I've talked about affirmation and visualisation a lot,' says the Denver native. 'I learned it when I was playing college football, but I perfected it while announcing. I would spend so much time on the road with my own thoughts, I would play videos in my mind: 'This is what I'll be wearing, this is what it'll feel like, this is how I'm gonna say Madison Square Garden.'
'I've already lived this in my brain, now I just get to experience it in real life. It's like when I get asked about the Mike Tyson introduction; I've already announced him in my brain. It's reality, so in theory it's more important, but I've already done this.' Still, 'I think [MSG] is gonna be the first moment in my career where I really lean back in my chair, like: 'Holy s***.' I did it a little bit at Paul vs Tyson, but there I almost blacked out because of the adrenaline...'
The rest of the world will get to hear Mommaerts's rendition of 'Madisoooon Squuuaaaare Gaaaaaaaaaardeeeeen' on 11 July, when Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano top an all-female card and end the most important rivalry in the history of women's boxing. Their trilogy began at MSG in 2022, when Taylor narrowly beat the Puerto Rican, before the Irish icon did the same when they clashed on the Paul-Tyson undercard. Taylor and Serrano, the first women's boxers to earn seven-figure paydays, will return to the scene of their first fight and the platform of their second: Netflix, which is showing its belief in Mommaerts again.
'I came into this industry with zero broadcast, TV, boxing, or professional speaking experience,' he reflects. 'I'd publicly spoken, but at a collegiate level, because I was young. So [a few years ago], this 25-year-old kid with no background was holding a live microphone for billion-dollar corporations, who had sunk millions of dollars into an event. I understood the apprehension of using me. When I cold-called all the various promoters and networks, I understood them saying: 'Yeah, we're not gonna use you, we're gonna use the guy we've been using for 40 years.'
'There was a vast difference between me and every other MC, so I had to be perfect, polished, professional. They might have been looking for any reason to say: 'This is why we didn't hire the kid, I told you this was a bad idea.''
Mommaerts credits his professionalism with arguably being more important than his voice, but what of that voice? Trying to describe it is a punishing endeavour for a writer. There is a deepness to it, but also a clarity and crispness – a precision. To hear Mommaerts speak is to feel like you're trying on the most expensive set of headphones on the shelves, with the bass and treble dialled to perfection.
But to hear Mommaerts speak is one thing; to really listen to what he has to say is another. And listening to him now, a few years into an electric run atop the business, are there questions over where Big Mo starts and Kody Mommaerts ends?
'I don't want it to sound like Big Mo is this character – that's not it,' Mommaerts says, but: 'I have to dial things up. My job is very charisma-driven, it's very extraversion. It's camera, flash, smile, announcing, crowd, media, press conference. It's so much, and I'm in front of it all. And I don't mean that in a boastful way, as if I'm the star of the show, but I do have to be almost this character in a sense. I have to be this larger-than-life person to present in the way I want. I have to dial things up.
'I've never actually shared this before: this job has changed my social battery. What a lot of people don't understand is: beyond just being an MC, and the whole point of being an MC is establishing authority and being vocal, I'm also 6ft 7in. I'm a big guy, I stand out already, and a large component of my job is very visual. Networks like Sky and Netflix like putting me on camera, which is great, but it's weird: it's just changed how I look at being in front of people. Now, when I'm outside of my job, I don't always love being in front of a lot of people. I try to keep it more low-key.
'Before the job, when I would go out, I would be this real social person, life of the party, blah blah blah. Now, when I go out, I'm kind of more of the guy on the wall. I'm a little bit more reserved. I still like to have fun, but I like to kind of keep to myself. So, the job has changed me a little bit – not in a bad way, but I've noticed it.'
There is little that the man with the mic doesn't notice; while his God-given voice took him a long way, his attention to detail has been a key part of his success, too. So, if anyone can channel change into something unequivocally advantageous, it is Mommaerts.