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John Rawling is a British
boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
,
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
,
darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...
and yachting commentator, currently working for BT Sport, ITV and Talksport. He has become known as one of the best known voices of boxing commentary. With BT, John commentates alongside former World Super-Middleweight champion
Richie Woodhall Richie Woodhall (born 17 April 1968) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2000. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1998 to 1999, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1992 to 1995, and th ...
, while former World Cruiserweight champion Glenn McCrory is his co-commentator with Talksport. On ITV darts broadcasts, John commentates with Chris Mason, Stuart Pyke, Dan Dawson and
Alan Warriner-Little Alan Warriner-Little (born Warriner; 24 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player. Nicknamed The Iceman, he is a former World Grand Prix champion and a former runner-up at the World Professional Darts Championship. Darts care ...
, while Mason and Paul Nicholson are alongside him for Talksport darts coverage. John also commentates on Paralympic sports for Channel 4. He was the lead commentator for
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
in their award-winning coverage of the 2012 Paralympics in London and the
2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in the ...
in Korea. Channel 4 received a BAFTA for Best Live Sports Broadcast for their coverage of the Paralympics and also received a special award from the Royal Television Society. He has subsequently commentated on all major Para events, including the Rio Paralympics of 2016 and the Winter Paralympics in 2014 and 2018. His work has also included acting as lead commentator in the Americas Cup World Series of yachting. Previously, he was the main boxing commentator on
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
after boxing returned to the network in September 2005. In 2007, he was named Sports Commentator of the Year by the
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
for his work in
ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.The Big Fight Live ''The Big Fight Live'' is a British boxing television programme, broadcast by ITV Sport regularly from 1984 to 1995 and again from 2005 to 2010. In 2017, over 30 years after it was first launched, ITV announced that 'The Big Fight Live' would retu ...
''. John also commentated on boxing for Sky Television and Setanta. Before joining ITV, John was an award-winning commentator on BBC Radio, covering major athletics meetings across the world from 1988 as BBC Athletics Correspondent, winning the Sony Radio Sports Commentator of the Year award, and also broadcasting numerous world title boxing bouts. Previous work experienced includes a spell at the Mansfield Chad, Roland Orton's Leicester News Service and BBC Radio Leicester.


Education

Rawling was educated at King Edward VII, Sheffield and Manchester University.


Broadcasting career

Rawling previously commentated on boxing and
athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Radio, and was named Sony Radio Sports Broadcaster of the Year in 1994. He was the lead commentator at four Olympic Games from Barcelona in 1992 to Athens in 2004. He was covering major title fights for the BBC from 1987 until 2005. He contributed some boxing commentary on BBC television. He also reported
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
matches, cricket and golf for
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
. His long-term commentating partner on
Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...
,
Duke McKenzie Duke McKenzie (born 5 May 1963) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1998.. Retrieved 13 December 2016. He is a three-weight world champion, having held the IBF flyweight title from 1988 to 1989; the WBO bantamwei ...
, a former world boxing champion at three weights, moved to ITV at the same time as Rawling. Rawling commentated for
Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...
, before it went into administration, alongside
Richie Woodhall Richie Woodhall (born 17 April 1968) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2000. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1998 to 1999, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1992 to 1995, and th ...
, who co-commentates on BBC Radio at other times, and
Steve Bunce Steve Bunce (born 3 December 1962 in Camden Town, London), nicknamed "Buncey", is a British freelance television and radio sport pundit and newspaper columnist. Career He has regularly appeared as a pundit on the BBC sports programme ''Inside ...
. He has also commentated for
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
on The Contender Series and on the Prime pay per view network. Rawling is currently commentating on boxing for BT Sport and BoxNation alongside Richie Woodhall and Barry Jones From the start of the 2007/08 season to 2008/09, John commentated for ITV on ''
The Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...
'', the Sunday morning
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
highlights programme and was a regular contributor to Champions League and FA Cup broadcasts. He has also commentated on football for various other broadcast organisations, including 2010 World Cup and Premier League for Talksport radio and he provides television commentaries for the Premier League, broadcast on their world feed. John also commentates on
darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...
for
ITV4 ITV4 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV (TV network), ITV network. The channel h ...
and ESPN. He was lead commentator on the 2012 Paralympics in London for Channel 4 and also for the 2011 IAAF World Championship
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
in Daegu, Korea. Rawling became a presenter and commentator on the paid-subscription boxing channel
BoxNation BoxNation was a British dedicated boxing subscription television channel, operated by Viaplay. The brand is licensed from George Warren's Queensbury Commercial. History BoxNation was launched by Frank Warren Promotions as a free-to-air channe ...
in September 2011. Rawling will be commentator for the
2013 America's Cup The 34th America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay on September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand r ...
. He returned to BBC 5 Live to commentate on darts, in the 2014 PDC World Championship final. From 2014 John Rawling has commented on the BDO World Darts Championships at the Lakeside Country Club for firstly for BBC Sport then BT Sport & Channel 4 alongside Jim Proudfoot, Paul Nicholson, Chris Mason, Vassos Alexander and Tony Green.


Writing

Rawling has written for a number of UK Newspapers, (in particular
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
). He was ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' boxing correspondent from 1997 to 2009 following the retirement of John Rodda, and has also written many articles on other sports besides boxing.


Radio

Rawling has made frequent appearances on the BBC Radio 5 Live sports punditry programme ''
Fighting Talk ''Fighting Talk'' is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 1100 and 1200 and is based on a similar format to the ESPN show ''Around t ...
'' since its first series, and has been known by the
nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
s of "J.R." (His initials) and "Psycho".


Athletics commentary

Athletics fans who attend British events are familiar with his voice, alongside Geoff Wightman, providing stadium commentary.


Personal life

John has three children and lives in
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
. He is a
dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
lover, with a devoted
German Shepherd The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for he ...
Dog 'Millie,' and an enthusiastic
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
er.


References


External links


John Rawling on Ali, BBC


{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawling, John Living people Sportspeople from Sheffield People educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield Alumni of the University of Manchester Boxing commentators British sports broadcasters The Guardian journalists Year of birth missing (living people) People from Lincolnshire Golf writers and broadcasters Association football commentators Olympic Games broadcasters Darts commentators