What do you think of Dan Rafael?

[Golden Boi 360]

He always seems to be in Twitter beef with someone.

And it seems like he has turned on Canelo, lol.

[jmrf4435]

"He always seems to be in Twitter beef with someone.

And it seems like he has turned on Canelo, lol"

He talks sooooo much ****

[Sugar Adam Ali]

He is no expert, and really is no better than your average poster here on NSb.. His only value is that he works for espn so he gets a lot of the inside scoops

[Beercules]

I have a poster of him.

[j0zef]

He's alright. A little unprofessional at times, but on the other hand, would we rather have an insider who doesn't talk to the fans at all?

I can understand where he's coming from. A lot of sports fans, and boxing fans in particular, are extremely biased. Answering the same loaded BS question day after day is probably very frustrating.

Definitely agree that he should lose some weight, not for the sake of his health, but for the sake of the sport. I'm all for equality in the world, but it would be much better if someone who repesents the sport (as a writer) actually looks like he belongs.

[BucaRican]

Wow, I thought I was the only one that found the guy as lucky to have his Job. The only thing he has is the highest know sports reporting entity as his employer.

But his favoritism, is constantly on display. I've been blocked from him on twitter because I pointed out some of his flaws.

Man I remember when he was jocking Lucas Matthysse, before the Danny Garcia fight. Boy did he look ****** with some of his commentary.

[ukbox]

I have a poster of him.

That fat *** wouldn't fit on a poster

Do you mean you have Dan Raphael wallpaper?

[BennyBlanco]

You obviously ignore a lot of boxing writers, nothing wrong with that they usually suck, but I assure you Fat Dan is solid. Go read some of that **** that Scoop Malinowski(?) puts out. Or go check out that article from just a few days ago by a notable boxing writer that was like a essay broken down to one paragraph that he repeated at least 8 times. Dan's for sure not a hack in this business even if he's a biased (like everyone else) emotional weakling.

Elie on the otherhand is like a autistic success story with his goofy ass. Its amazing to me he's done what he's done & he makes me feel like I could be huge in boxing media if I merely applied myself + finally put the time in learning the difference between then & than. Strike the last part cuz I'm positive Elie don't know that **** either.

Rafael is NOT a good writer. You insult the long history of excellent boxing writers by even calling Rafael a "writer." Rafael is an excellent transcriber of press releases, and he also excels at Tweets...but he has yet to "write" a boxing "story." Most of his posts are the most basic factual recountings of a few hundred words...no nuance, no characters, no context, no drama, no creativity.

Because of its natural melodrama and unique characters, boxing has attracted some of the greatest writers in American literature, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, James Baldwin, Gay Talese and George Plimpton.

Current boxing writers - meaning those who can not only report basic facts and accurately reflect the judges' scores, but also include flavor, emotion, drama, creativity, backstory and human character - include:
- Mark Kriegel (see his books on Mancini and Namath and his long profile of De La Hoya)
- Hugh McIlvanney
- Thomas Hauser (BEFORE he became an HBO shill)
- Ron Borges
- Thomas Jay
- Pete Hamill (see his writing on Cus D'Amato)
- Jay Kang (mainly writes basketball, but occasionally does boxing)
- Greg Bishop

Read any of these guys and you'll understand the difference between Dan Rafael and a writer.

[Eff Pandas]

Rafael is NOT a good writer. You insult the long history of excellent boxing writers by even calling Rafael a "writer." Rafael is an excellent transcriber of press releases, and he also excels at Tweets...but he has yet to "write" a boxing "story." Most of his posts are the most basic factual recountings of a few hundred words...no nuance, no characters, no context, no drama, no creativity.

Because of its natural melodrama and unique characters, boxing has attracted some of the greatest writers in American literature, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, James Baldwin, Gay Talese and George Plimpton.

Where did I say Fat Dan was the new Norman Mailer? I said he's in the top 1% of boxing writers/reporters (there I clarified it a lil more for you). There are a ****ton of boxing media & the overwhelming majority of them do make Fat Dan look like Norman Mailer in comparison to the incoherent scribbles they produce. I'm dissing boxing writers & the ease with which any moron with a website can become one more than I'm big upping Fat Dan.

[Clegg]

A lot of boxing writers are a bit shit and he's better than most. I only really read his chat though, sometimes has updates that I didn't catch elsewhere. His articles are ok but not on the level of the better writers on here (Cliff, DG, Jake etc.).