Dan Rafael

Biography

Rafael was born in Albany, New York. After high school, he attended State University of New York at Binghamton, where he wrote for the school paper. He started as sports writer, and worked his way to managing editor. He also served an internship at the local newspaper, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

He later took a part-time job at The Saratogian, a community newspaper published at Saratoga Springs, New York. When a full-time job opened at the newspaper, he took it, then moved to a reporting position at the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, covering college sports and local auto-racing. He later was assigned to cover the local AA baseball club (Binghamton Mets, the farm club of the New York Mets).

The Gannett newspaper empire (which owned the Binghamton newspaper) fostered promising writers by detailing them to Virginia for four months and thoroughly grounding them in the newspaper business, working at USA Today. Rafael began his course in August 1998. He worked covering major-league baseball. When baseball season ended, the newspaper's principal boxing reporter (Jon Saraceno) was moving up, so Rafael was asked to cover boxing.

Rafael's temporary duty at USA Today ended in December 1998, and he returned to Binghamton. In January 2000, he was asked to return to USA Today on a permanent basis, as a boxing writer.

In September 2004, ESPN began pursuing Rafael, desiring to strengthen its boxing coverage. He began with ESPN.com in March 2005. He writes in-depth coverage pieces, and his specialty is his weekly compilation of rankings.

In January 2016, ESPN announced Rafael had been signed to a new multi-year agreement.

Awards and recognition

In 2013 Rafael was awarded the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism from the Boxing Writers Association of America.

While Rafael has been called "The Most Important Journalist in Boxing," he's unquestionably prolific, with more than 10,000 articles, blog posts and chat transcripts available at ESPN.com.