Sources: Dan Rafael to be HBO unofficial matchmaker.

[Evil Abed]

TeamCollazoBK Luis A
@TheRealPhantom5 I think he will do a better job than whoever is their matchmaker now

[Left Hook Tua]

ahhh Kery Davis. Yeah I think Dan can do a better job of making good, entertaining fights. Of course though Dan is not without bias and he'll do some ****** **** himself like having Joel Julio fight all the time. But he's better than Davis.

kery davis was in the music business before going to hbo right?

no doubt dan will do better.

besides even with some of his bias towards certain fighters (and who doesn't?) he at least has a good idea of what hbo fights should be.


another benefit of this is dan doesn't care for the alphabet titles too much.

it might save us from meaningless alphabet soup defenses.

[Kevin Malone]

I've both attacked and defended Dan on this forum and on Twitter. I think this would be a good role for him though honestly as he is a fan first and knows what type of fights he wants to see. I don't see how he could even be remotely as bad as what they have now. I can see it now though: A horrible headliner universally deadpanned by fans gets scheduled after Dan officially gets the job and he gets crapped on by everyone. I would really wonder how much power he really has. I'm also curious how it would effect his ESPN reporting and relationship with the network (not in a pro-HBO bias, but in divulging information about possible fights in the making)

[ИATAS]

kery davis was in the music business before going to hbo right?

yep that's right. I just bumped that Thomas Hauser article that talks about that and how his "inside source" said Davis wouldn't be with HBO much longer. Looks like was right.

[Eaner0919]

well one thing for sure

Dan will get heavy scrutinization and if he starts failing to hear what the boxing community wants to see and going with the friends he has made within the industry then we will see the same thing occur.

[Left Hook Tua]

well one thing for sure

Dan will get heavy scrutinization and if he starts failing to hear what the boxing community wants to see and going with the friends he has made within the industry then we will see the same thing occur.

dan seems professional enough when he writes his articles and tv appearances.

he's not so professional when he does his chats and tweets though. but i can understand the difference.

i'm sure he can handle his hbo job professionally.

[DrewWoodside]

88-82 Rios baby!!

after that fight I ran into Elie and just said "dude really?"

He hangs out at the guy's camp regularly and is expected to give an unbiased score.. Well he failed at that. The guy has only been following the sport for a short period of time. He knows less than most NSB posters. He became a fan through Dmitry Salita.

[Chuckguy]

he basically said he gave the rounds to the heavier puncher.

I told him all the trips to Oxnard swayed his scoring and that there were times when not only was Acosta the better boxer but also the harder puncher. He blindly defended his stance and I realized nothing was going to come of it so I left it at that

thats a trip because RIos was rocked a few times
not on q ueer st or anything but you can tell he was stunned
I became a fan of Rios during that fight

[chav]

kery davis was in the music business before going to hbo right?

no doubt dan will do better.

besides even with some of his bias towards certain fighters (and who doesn't?) he at least has a good idea of what hbo fights should be.


another benefit of this is dan doesn't care for the alphabet titles too much.

it might save us from meaningless alphabet soup defenses.

Sounds pretty reasonable from where I'm sat, as long as he keep listening to the boxing community.
If he matches them hard and fair then it's better then letting all the promoters run HBO's shows. If all fails they can just fire him and get someone else, so i say give the man a crack

[ChopperRead]

To me, Rafael's ego as of late has been swelling almost as big as his waistline, if you follow his chats.

I used to think he was OK, now I'm not so sure.

He has conflicts of interest galore: I don't see how he takes this gig and still writes for ESPN. Way too many potential problems there, and he has enough conflicts of interest already, being buddies with certain promoters and favoring certain fighters.