Mike Costello(born April 1960) is a British sports broadcaster. He is the main

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

commentator for

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

, having previously worked at

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

for 45 years.

Early life

Costello grew up in

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

in south London. Both his parents were Irish immigrants, living in London before they met. An amateur boxer, he also worked as a boxing trainer, training Adam Booth and

Henry Akinwande Henry Adetokunboh Akinwande (born 12 October 1965) is a British former WBO boxing world champion who competed from 1989 to 2008. He held the WBO heavyweight title from 1996 to 1997, as well as the Commonwealth heavyweight title in 1993, and t ...

"Mike Costello", BBC Radio 5 Live. Originally broadcast 26 August 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zg0v before choosing to focus on his broadcasting career.

Career

Costello began his career at the BBC in 1979 as a filing clerk in the accounts department. Due to a restructure, he moved to the accounts department within the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

, where later he became a runner and then a Broadcast Assistant on the

sports desk. Costello reported on cricket for the BBC World Service in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the MRF World Series in Pakistan in 1989 and England's tour of India of 1992-93. He also reported on athletics, including at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Costello's first commentary was at the 1995 World Athletics Championships in

Gothenburg, Sweden Gothenburg ( ; ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gubernatorial seat of Västra Götaland County, ...

. At the Commonwealth Games in 2002, after John Rawling lost his voice, Costello was asked to commentate live over multiple nights. After John Rawling moved to ITV in 2005, Costello became lead commentator for boxing and athletics across BBC's domestic radio output. In June 2021, Costello signed a deal with

to commentate on their coverage of boxing, ending his long tenure covering boxing with the BBC. In 2025 he rejoined BBC radio 5 live as a freelance covering their athletics coverage.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people BBC sports presenters and reporters {{BBC-radio-stub