Ian Darke

[lurkyshaka]

yes john rawlings has 6 or 7 shows to do before end of year,very good at his job is john

Speaking personally i cannot stand Rawlings delivery as a commentator. He comes across as patronising and miserable. At least with Adam Smith, its clear to see/hear that he enjoys his job and has real passion for the sport. Rawling always sounds like he's irritated and bored, and i swear his face would break if he cracked a smile. I sincerely hope he doesn't become a regular fixture at SKY.

[dondada]

Dempsey's gone from the main studio anchor role, he went ages ago - It's Dave Wotsit, the Leeds fan who always looks like he has something in his right eye.

An observation: is it just me or do all Ingle fighters talk out of the side of their mouths?

Ha, ha - good one - a disproportionate amount of them do, actually. It must just be an extension of the switch hitting mentality.

Junior and Big Richie Towers talk straight but plenty of others shoot from the side

[forcefraser]

Pearce is by far the best football commentator. I wonder if he knows his boxing?

[Happy Slapper]

Pearce is crap! Don't get me started on him.

Ian Darke is a massive loss to Sky Sports. Adam Smith will now take over and is enthusiastic which I like but he's annoyingly enthusiastic sometimes, and I hate the way he wants to have Floyd Mayweather's babies.

In terms of the pundit with Smith/Darke, I like McCrory best. Jim Watt makes up his mind after the first 3 punches are thrown who has won the fight and won't change from that despite what's happening before his very eyes. Johnny Nelson doesn't really say anything worth saying, and Piper sits on the fence.

[goldbird]

Piper is horrendous. His arse is impaled on the fence and he hasn't gotten off for years.

Smith is extremely poor. Just absolutely diabolical as a commentator. I never can listen to him commentating and always have to turn it on mute. Compared to Darke he is so poor that it's difficult to describe. The funny thing is that virtually everybody but Smith knows how poor he is in the commentary chair. I really would love to see the back of him from Sky as would many others.

Ed Robinson and Craig Slater are class acts and improve the quality of the show. Ed is a gentleman and has come on the forum before. In fact there is a large thread dedicated to Ed. A much loved man on boxrec forums and not a "slimey little toad"

Johnny Nelson is poor. Sorry but he is just not good. Tries too hard.

Dave Darts looks like he has a dart stuck up his arse or is extremely constipated all the time. Just look at the chaps face at any time and see what I mean. He clearly has no boxing knowledge either.

Watt is a decent commentator but needs to be more fluid in his approach and look at the fight from different angles instead of making strong views either way. Make the strong views when necessary but not all the time. He is good though in my opinion.

McCrory has a voice for commentating. I have to admit, I liked the McCrory darke combo. I just wish he would speak his mind more and adopt somewhat of a Jim Watt mentality. I don't think he ever disagreed with Darke at all during their years commentating together. In the studio he is on the fence and just worried about keeping his job.

Here is what I propose..
Get Adam Smith OUT of the commentators chair and into the presenters role. He stills makes a pratt of himself with his OTT delivery but he does have some boxing knowledge and that can't be denied. However, he is a piss poor commentator.

Get Darke back in the commentary chair with McCrory. Tell McCrory to express his views more.
Get Watt in studio to give analysis.
Get rid of Piper totally. Surgical removal of Piper from the fence he is impaled on.
Get rid of Nelson, he comes out with daft comments too much.
Get Dempsey back and get rid of Dave Darts.
Get Woodhall in the studio with Watt to analyse the contests.


Froch will be a great pundit when he retires.

[forcefraser]

Get the two guys who commentated for the U.S channel during the Froch v Taylor Fight. Bernstein and some other guy.

They were quality. A world apart from Rawling and McGuigan.

Just be thankful that we don`t have Teddy Atlas.

Smith takes a lot of stick on here, but I don`t think he is too bad. He is bang into his boxing.

[orbtastic]

Bernstein is the top of the pile for me.

[Counter-puncher]

Bernstein is the top of the pile for me.

oh, hell yes.

[Scouse Fight Fan]

Big fan of Darke on the boxing but I think hes a terrible football commentator. He uses all the soundbites but sounds very unknowledgable about what goes on in football. The chemistry between him and Andy Gray was really terrible whenever they seemed to be paired off for games when Tyler seemed to drop out of favour. There'd be times where Gray would go quiet for extremely long spells (some would say thats a good thing ) only to be heard again correcting Darke and putting him right on something he'd said that was not correct.

Darkes boxing commentary though is the best out there as far as I'm concerned. Nobody better at all. The days of Dempsey in the studio and Darke behind the commentary mic were for me the best days of boxing on Sky!

[Bricks]

I see Ian Darke has signed a long-term deal for ESPN which will see him commentate for them on MLS, Premier League, US Soccer games and the 2014 World Cup.

http://www.epltalk.com/ian-darke-to-mak ... game-24911

Early days, I know, but does this mean that SKY are set to lose their boxing commentator? If so, that would be a real shame as I think he's their strongest asset.

I never really liked him as a boxing commentator, too many cliches, annoying delivery and didnt have any range of vocals or emotions. He was probably better at football anyway.

Adam Smith isnt much better tbh, why he has to keep on saying the fighters full name I dont know.

Rawling is a great radio man, and he may well be the best bet


I hope the other 2 guys are joking about Al Bernstein he may be the most annoying whining commnetator ever. His commentary on the super 6 is a joke I would rather suffer 1000 commentairies by Jim Neily tbh!!!

[Smokin Preedy]

Ian Darke was commentating on the Rochdale game for SSN on Tuesday night. he will be missed.

[dondada]

Bernstein and Farhood are class.