Joe A. Martinez

Joseph Anthony Martinez (born April 10, 1975 in Apple Valley, California) is an American ring announcer currently working for Mixed Martial Arts promotions Invicta FC, PFL, UFC and boxing's Golden Boy Promotions.

Joe A. Martinez
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJoeMar
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationBachelor Of Arts, Communication
Alma materCalifornia State University, Fullerton
OccupationRing/Sports Announcer
Years active1994–present
EmployerJAM Entertainment, Inc.
Home townBarstow, CA
Height6’1”
Spouse(s)Lena

Career

A Communications graduate of California State University, Fullerton,[1] Martinez began his professional career in 1996 as both the public address announcer for the Lake Elsinore Storm Minor League Baseball team (a San Diego Padres affiliate) and various Cal State Fullerton athletic programs. He retired from the Storm and Cal State Fullerton in 2017 and moved from Orange County, CA to North Georgia. Martinez has been the main ring announcer for Golden Boy Boxing since 2011 and has also been an occasional Octagon announcer for UFC since 2007, carrying over from the now merged World Extreme Cagefighting and has announced over 100 events under the Zuffa banner. More recently, he was signed by the Professional Fighters League PFL in 2018 to handle MC duties for the organization’s inaugural season. Martinez continued to show his multi-platform high-level abilities when he took over the ring announcing duties for the GGG vs. Canelo Alvarez pay per view on HBO in September of 2018 - a fight that drew over 1.1 million PPV buys. 2018 saw Martinez reach new heights in his career. He was twice hired as ring Announcer for the DirecTV MMA drama “Kingdom” and was sought after for a role in the same capacity for the upcoming Korean movie “Divine Fury”. He also headed up cage announcing duties for “Wars End” when Golden Boy Promotions promoted Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz to fight for a third and final time in a cage. Martinez was twice featured on Sony Playstation’s MLB The Show in 2006 and 2007. He has also been on two episodes of Kingdom a television drama on Audience Network and appeared in an AMP Energy Drink commercial. He twice toured with the Harlem Globetrotters as their announcer as well as the US Olympic softball team en route to the Australia Summer Olympics in 2000. Martinez is married and has four children. He is a Christian minister and co-founder of Anchor of Hope Ministries while also a congregate of the Rock Church (Anaheim, CA).

Baseball, Softball and Basketball

In 1996, Martinez began his career as a public address announcer for the Lake Elsinore Storm, a Minor League team affiliate of the San Diego Padres. He announced the Women's College World Series in 1998 and a U.S. Olympic Softball Team tour in 2000. From 2001 to 2002, he worked for The Harlem Globetrotters.[2]

Boxing

Martinez became the featured ring announcer for Oscar De La Hoya's, Fox reality television series "The Next Great Champ" in 2004. In 2006 he began announcing for Guilty Boxing Promotions on ESPN Deportes. Now he can be seen announcing for Golden Boy Promotions and other promotions on various networks around the world.[3]

Mixed Martial Arts

Joe was the exclusive cage announcer for World Extreme Cagefighting from 2007-2010. In 2010, WEC was merged into UFC by parent company Zuffa, LLC. Since then, he has worked with Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, announcing fights across the globe.[2] UFC brought Martinez in for the first time at the Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes finale in Australia on December 14, 2012. He was later used again January 4, 2014, at UFC Fight Night: Saffiedine vs. Lim, an event that was the UFC's debut in Singapore. His third UFC appearance was on June 28, 2014 at UFC Fight Night: Te Huna vs. Marquardt in Auckland, New Zealand and his fourth was at UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping in Sydney, Australia. In 2015 he announced UFC in Brisbane, Australia. His next event was UFC Fight Night: Mir vs. Duffee on July 15, 2015 in San Diego, CA, and did not return to announcing for the UFC until July 13, 2016. He announced 10 UFC Fight Nights in 2017 and is scheduled for another 10 in 2018.

Joe is currently the ring announcer for Invicta FC, PFL, UFC and Golden Boy Promotions.

Other appearances

Sony PlayStation MLB 06, MLB 07, "King of the Diamond" - In-game Public Address Announcer (2006) (2007).[4]

gollark: It's a distributed systems thing.
gollark: I mean, you could use Raft for this, even.
gollark: Anyway, it's not like keeping a single number consistent is beyond the abilities of modern distributed systems design.
gollark: So basically, it uses a hyperconverged AI blockchain weaved throughout the virtual edge clouds.
gollark: Upgrade to GTech™ Eye™ v2.

References
  1. Heldreth, David (September 24, 2007). "Q&A: Joe Martinez". Desert Dispatch. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  2. Shaxted, Daryn (August 22, 2011). "Cage Warriors Sign Veteran US Ring Announcer Joe Martinez". MMA Pundit. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  3. Rizzo, Joe (May 17, 2010). "WEC parts ways with cage announcer Joe Martinez". MMADieHards. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  4. "MLB 06 and 07: The Show credits: Joe Martinez, P.A. Announcer - King of the Diamond". Retrieved July 28, 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.