Steve Bunce (born 3 December 1962 in

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

), nicknamed "Buncey", is a British

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...

television and radio sport

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

and newspaper columnist.

Career

He has regularly appeared as a pundit on the BBC sports programme '' Inside Sport'' and on

BBC Radio Five 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, broadcas ...

's ''

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 ...

''. Bunce was the face of boxing on

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 previ ...

and headlined his own show, ''Steve Bunce's Boxing Hour'', until June 2009 when the organisation ceased broadcasting in Britain. Despite calls for the popular boxing show to reappear, it failed to materialise until the introduction of Britain's first dedicated boxing channel BoxNation. Once again Bunce became the face of boxing on BoxNation, and the long awaited return of ''Bunce's Boxing Hour'' started broadcasting 17 October 2011. He has a regular column in the magazine ''

Boxing Monthly ''Boxing Monthly'' was a London-based, worldwide monthly boxing magazine. History and profile ''Boxing Monthly'' was founded in May 1989. The monthly periodical was mainly feature-based, with a focus on UK and international fighters. It included ...

''. In 2010, he published his debut work of fiction ''The Fixer''. He currently presents the

ESPN UK BT Sport 4 is a British sports television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA and the BT Group. It is part of the BT Sport group of channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is predominantly focused on sports from North America. ...

version of the American sports talk show ''

Pardon the Interruption ''Pardon the Interruption'' (abbreviated ''PTI'') is an American sports talk television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stor ...

''. Bunce regularly appears on

BBC 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 Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

's ''

'' and the ''Steve Bunce Boxing Show'' on

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM broadcasting, FM frequency, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, ...

. Bunce won the FT Champion of Champions final on 19 May 2012, defeating

Martin Kelner Martin Barry Kelner is a British journalist, author, comedian, singer, actor and TV presenter, whose primary career is in radio presenting. He has spent over 40 years hosting radio shows, mostly for the BBC, in particular Radio Leeds. He has be ...

Dougie Anderson Douglas James Anderson (born 27 May 1976 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish radio and television presenter writer and voice-over artist who trained at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Radio Anderson is notable for his regular guest appearances ...

, and Greg Brady in the process.

Personal life

Born in

, Bunce currently resides in the North of England with his wife, a former

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

lacrosse captain, and two children. Apart from sport media, Bunce has been a supporter of fire safety since 2010 because of an incident in his teenage years when his home was set alight because of a carelessly extinguished cigarette in an ashtray. The phrase "put it out, right out" has since become a part of Bunce's intro on ''Fighting Talk''.

Northants rugby controversy

Bunce's eldest son, as of 2013, attends

Denstone College Denstone College is a mixed, independent, boarding and day school in Denstone, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England. It is a Woodard School, having been founded by Nathaniel Woodard, and so Christian traditions are practised as part of Col ...

and plays in its

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

first XV squad. The elder Bunce was involved in an incident during the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' Schools rugby tournament when a

Northampton School for Boys Northampton School for Boys (NSB) is a secondary school in Northampton, England. It was founded as Northampton Town and County Grammar School in 1541 by Thomas Chipsey, Mayor of Northampton. Education in England#Stages of compulsory education, Yea ...

player called him "a stupid tit" and then allegedly spat on his wife. However, the Northants school headmaster Rod Goldswain spoke with

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 ...

and while he was able to confirm the first part of Bunce's story, he went on to say that the player in question actually spat on the ground and not on Mrs. Bunce, and that said student was given a "dressing down" as a result. Goldswain later apologised for these remarks; Bunce, after generating a minor controversy, admitted that this was "a private matter" that shouldn't have been aired on the 5 January 2013 episode of ''Fighting Talk'' and that he should have written to the school about the incident.

References

External links

* * * * Living people British sports broadcasters Boxing writers 1962 births English male boxers {{England-boxing-bio-stub