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 predetermine ...

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 eve ...

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the ...

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, 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, 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 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 after boxing returned to the network in September 2005. In 2007, he was named Sports Commentator of the Year by the Royal Television Society for his work in ITV Sport's ''

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 for BBC 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 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 ...

. His long-term commentating partner on Radio 5 Live, Duke McKenzie, 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, who co-commentates on BBC Radio at other times, and Steve Bunce. 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 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

for

ITV4 ITV4 is a 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 network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classi ...

and ESPN. He was lead commentator on the 2012 Paralympics in London for Channel 4 and also for the 2011 IAAF World Championship

in Daegu, Korea. Rawling became a presenter and commentator on the paid-subscription boxing channel BoxNation 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 ...

. 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 A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

). He was ''

'' 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'' 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, Leicestershir ...

. He is a dog 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, fo ...

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 ...

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