Dan Rafael Watch

[R_Walken]

Who do you put into his place though? Only boxing writers that I can earnestly say are objective writers are Kevin Iole, Lance Puigmire, and Paul Magno more often than not; Iole is the combat sports guy for Yahoo, Puigmire is the combat sports guy for the LA Times (a magazine of record), and Magno seems permanently outside of the boxing press party, sitting at the door.

Steve Kim is no better than Rafael, and Dougie Fischer is just as much of a shill as Kim is.

Ariel Hawani would be pretty perfect for the spot, but his contacts in boxing don't run all that deep.

Rafael has worked his way into having longevity, while also still making sure to have a better rep than any of the other writers not tied to better outfits.

He lucked out

I agree with the comment below that Coppinger would be a decent pick. I Think a handfull of UK reporters would absolutly kill it on a ESPN platform and help grow the sport. Or bring in new blood

I'm not really a UFC fan but the media that covers the sport represents their sport better. Boxing writers appear to have too many favorites with in the promoters and makes it like Fox News / MSNBC where it's either your a HBO / TR / GB / Main Events side or a PBC / Haymon side and you rarely get it down the middle


I actually like Kim. While he's biased as f.uck at least He's a fan of the sport and for the most part he knows his sh.it

Rafeal is absolute trash, He's a bottom of the barrel reporter. He's clearly biased, agrees with fighters he's supposed to cover. Knows nothing about the sport, Can't write worth sh.it and is only useful for the information he parrots for the Promoters. He's not respected with in the sport and only used because of the platform he's on


I get get better opinions / information from like 25% of the guys on this site

[Scipio2009]

I agree with the comment below that Coppinger would be a decent pick. I Think a handfull of UK reporters would absolutly kill it on a ESPN platform and help grow the sport. Or bring in new blood

I'm not really a UFC fan but the media that covers the sport represents their sport better. Boxing writers appear to have too many favorites with in the promoters and makes it like Fox News / MSNBC where it's either your a HBO / TR / GB / Main Events side or a PBC / Haymon side and you rarely get it down the middle


I actually like Kim. While he's biased as f.uck at least He's a fan of the sport and for the most part he knows his sh.it

Rafeal is absolute trash, He's a bottom of the barrel reporter. He's clearly biased, agrees with fighters he's supposed to cover. Knows nothing about the sport, Can't write worth sh.it and is only useful for the information he parrots for the Promoters. He's not respected with in the sport and only used because of the platform he's on


I get get better opinions / information from like 25% of the guys on this site

MMA has an easier sell, for the simple fact that there's only one dominant player to cover; if Bellator continues to grow (creating a WWF/WCW dynamic), the UFC likely no longer allows for a free flow of information and the reporters will start picking sides based on who gives/doesn't give access.

Coppinger going from USA Today to Golden Boy Magazine isn't a good look though