BoxRec

I've been a huge fan of Darkie from Day 1. He is a class act and in my opinion, the best commentator in sport. Has a great personality and can get the listener chuckling very easily with his humour but he can also invoke enthusiam and excitement in the listener very easily. He has the best voice for commentating by a country mile. Usually he is objective but he clearly has a very big bias towards British fighters.

Personally I think he's THE BEST OF ALL TIMES and we should appreciate him more.

Ian Darke is in no way shape or form underated

Everbody RATES him highly from what I have read and seen

yeah ive never hear a bad word about darke,anyone who can carry a lump like glen mccrory demands hugh respect

lirva wrote:I've been a huge fan of Darkie from Day 1. He is a class act and in my opinion, the best commentator in sport. Has a great personality and can get the listener chuckling very easily with his humour but he can also invoke enthusiam and excitement in the listener very easily. He has the best voice for commentating by a country mile. Usually he is objective but he clearly has a very big bias towards British fighters.

Personally I think he's THE BEST OF ALL TIMES and we should appreciate him more.

Is that you Ian?

He ain't quite as good as Harry or Reg (I preferred Reg on his own).
Remember Darkie missing the Naz left hook to the temple which finally finished off Robinson?

bennie wrote:He ain't quite as good as Harry or Reg (I preferred Reg on his own).

Sums up my feeling. My fave of his performances was Castillo v Corrales I.

Seems a nice guy too.

Bennie noone will ever match Reg for me, I don't think. but i think Darke reads a fight and describes it better than Harry did.

Harry was undoubtedly biased where Brits were involved but fights involving two neutrals brought out his brilliance.
"Oh my God, he's won the title back at 32!" (Ali-Foreman.)

Darke's ok, in that I've never really given him much notice. Generally I tend to listen to what the ex-fighters (in this case Watt) are saying rather than the padding or fillers that are the non fighting commentators. I always looked at them as a necessary concession to amuse the uneducated or the girlfriend if she ends up reluctantly watching. They like to mention little bits of background waffle like whether a boxer likes dancing or some such crap which I have very little interest in and only point out blinding obvious shots, like, 'wow, that was a great left hook'. I prefer to watch fights live where there is no commentary and guess what, even without someone going hysterical through my surround sound it is just as exciting. When I do watch TV boxing I only want interruptions when I've missed or not fully understood the significance or power in a punch. Personally, this is where Watt excels and is knowledge far beyond any non fighting commentators skill.

The only time I notice commentators is when they start talking sh*t and miscalling the fights.This is why I cannot stand Rawling as he imo the worst. (quick rant coming up) He believes he is a boxing guru and has the experience and knowledge to be the main caller of a fight. (If your incapable of learning something by genetic fault then believe me after 40 years of experience you can still know nothing.) He speaks with such self imposed authority and arrogance that it even causes the ex boxer (Mackenzie) to kowtow and agree with him even when he is completely wrong. In last weeks fight involving Murray against Lawton he said that Murray was tiring and slowing down. Not only had Murray not slowed down but he had increased his work rate and then stopped Lawton. I can forgive the occasional miscall now and again but in Rawlings case its every round. Its the only good thing that has come from the Setanta collapse and the ITV pull out that I don't have to hear him again.

i always thought darke was at his best when commentating on a lennox lewis fight,he was always defending lennox against detractors who claimed he was not british and the yanks who always said he would be beat by prime tyson/bowe/holyfield

Always reminds of radio when i listen to Darkie. Been absorbed by his commentary on a few middle-of-the-night broadcasts from the States, back in the day.

Darke is better than Reg ever was in my opinion, especially towards the end when he'd get completely muddled, and when he'd go completely off topic in Naz fights.

No disrespect to him though, he was good, and so was Harry.......

Perhaps it's that during my teens onwards when my love for boxing was growing and growing, Darke was the soundtrack to the fights I was watching......Hamed, Lewis etc.

This new bunch are a joke in comparison, Rawlings in particular really grates with me..

Many people ringside missed that punch that landed on Robinson, with the weather as it was - Many (and not just the Welsh fans) thought it was a slip - especially as Hamed seemed to be tiring a tadge.

Reg and Harry were the masters for me, personally I've learned to appreciate Harry more and more.

I think Rawling is fine IMO, just not a fan of his ITV sidekick. He works much better with Woodhall and was excellent alongside Atlas and the other US commentator (whose name escapes me but he looks like David Guest's younger more handsome brother) on the US VS UK things (which were excellent programmes).

Darke's excellent, the best of the lot for me. Reg was great but seemed a little cliched in the end, using the same catchphrases. No disrespect to Reg. He came out with some brilliant stuff: I think this was on the Benn-McClellan card, he started talking about somebody "turniphead" and I didn't know what he was on about, then digressed to a recent Bruno fight - "his opponent couldn't stand up in a 5 mil an hour wind." Priceless.

I wonder what Darke and co feel now. Do they just feel glad for the work. Or do they feel embarrassed about the exceedingly bad fights they had to talk up?

darke is better than reg and harry i think.

he's numero uno.

nothing beats his "that's extraordinary" comment during bowe-holyfield 3.

bennie wrote:He ain't quite as good as Harry or Reg (I preferred Reg on his own).
Remember Darkie missing the Naz left hook to the temple which finally finished off Robinson?

"and that's just a slip"

it did look like a slip though, despite hamed landing a decent left hook.

i liked the little voiceover they did for it on the hamed 5th anniversary programme.

"even the rain is missing hamed tonight, oh and that's a superb left hook"

I like Ian Darke and think he is a very good boxing commentator he and Jim Watt are good together imo

stujones wrote:I think Rawling is fine IMO, just not a fan of his ITV sidekick. He works much better with Woodhall and was excellent alongside Atlas and the other US commentator (whose name escapes me but he looks like David Guest's younger more handsome brother) on the US VS UK things (which were excellent programmes).

Joe Tessitore.

He is a class act, no drivel, just talks logically.

I don't think Ian Darke is underrated, everyone appreciates he is one of the best, certainly the best in this country.

Ian Darke every time. Quality guy.

You guys are so young. The game has changed so much. I didn't know how Darkie had the gall to get excited about Hatton's WBU title fights, Hatton dropping to his knees after winning the title against Tony Pep in Particular.
As Benny Leonard once said: 'The toughest fighter to fight is a stupid fighter. When you feint him, he doesn't even know you're doing it.'

Yes, I think Ian Darke is a great commentator. I also liked Reg and Harry :-)

My Name Is Earl wrote:Always reminds of radio when i listen to Darkie. Been absorbed by his commentary on a few middle-of-the-night broadcasts from the States, back in the day.

Good shout. Great memories of listening to the likes of Honeyghan/Curry in the early hours. You felt as if you were part of the event. A kind of exclusive club.

I used to think Darke had an ideal job, Boxing and Athletics commentator for BBC radio.

I agree he is underated. He never irritates me which is a good sign.

Agreed Ian Darke is never less than engaging and he and Watt make an excellent team. Rawling's okay too but sometimes it feels like he finds it a bit of a chore and a bore.

Emerson Poncey Name Ghent wrote:

bennie wrote:He ain't quite as good as Harry or Reg (I preferred Reg on his own).

Sums up my feeling. My fave of his performances was Castillo v Corrales I.

Seems a nice guy too.

Emerson are you sure? I'm about 99% certain it was Adam Smith who did the Sky commentary for Castillo-Corrales 1.

Agree with the rest though that he is the best by a mile of the current commentators. We were spoilt with Reg and Harry. Kind of like when we had Shilton and Clemence at the same time.