Highly-acclaimed boxing journalist Dan Rafael is one of the most well respected figures in the sport.
The American sportswriter was recognised for his achievements after being awarded the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism in 2013.
Rafael, 52, joined ESPN in 2013 as a senior writer before leaving the company in 2021.
The 52-year-old can have UFC star Conor McGregor to thank for his nickname of 'The Boxing Guy'.
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He earned the label in the months leading up to McGregor's crossover bout with Floyd Mayweather billed as 'The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History'.
Why is Dan Rafael known as 'The Boxing Guy'?
"As far as 'The Boxing Guy' thing goes, that was right before the Floyd Mayweather fight," Rafael exclusively told GIVEMESPORT.com. "Still to this day, I have people ask me about that incident.
"I was covering, well, that weekend was Gennady Golovkin, I believe it was against Daniel Jacobs at Madison Square Garden. But the night before that fight at Madison Square Garden, sort of piggybacking off of that weekend, Top Rank put on an event on which Michael Conlan from Belfast, Northern Ireland made his professional debut in the main event of one of their shows and it was a packed house.
"I believe it was either the day of or the night before St Patrick's Day so it was a huge Irish crowd. Conlan I guess is friendly with Conor McGregor so McGregor was at the fight and McGregor was trying to get the fight with Mayweather. So there was a lot of reporters there, a lot more than normal, the night before the Golovkin fight.
"Conor asked the Top Rank public relations person, Lee Samuels at the time, who's the boxing guy? Now what he meant by that was a lot of the other reporters that were there he knew because not only do they cover professional boxing but they also covered MMA so he knew a lot of those guys. He didn't know me because I don't cover MMA.
Dan Rafael has revealed why Conor McGregor called him 'The Boxing Guy'
"So Samuels points me out at ringside like you know I'm eight feet away from them. He comes running out of the ring, runs in front of where I was sitting at the press table there with all these other guys and he got right in front of my face and he goes 'are you the boxing guy?' There are videos of it on YouTube.
"He goes, 'you're not the boxing guy, I'm the boxing guy', and he started going on this tirade six inches from my face how he's going to, you know, prove us all wrong and how he's going to beat Mayweather and it became this crazy international thing. I mean - no exaggeration - I probably had 50 radio and TV requests after that incident occurred.
"That was pretty wild. So that's where that quote comes from, Conor McGregor said I'm 'The Boxing Guy.'"
But the story doesn't end there as Rafael went on to reveal they had another funny interaction a few weeks later.
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"By the way, here's the funny thing," he added. "So fast forward now a couple of months later and they actually make the Mayweather fight.
"Remember if you recall when they announced the fight they did a four city press tour. They were in London, they went to New York, they went elsewhere. So when they did the press slash public event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, I went from Washington to cover that for ESPN.
"So when Conor was brought into the media room to have his availability with the reporters, I was sitting there in the front row pretty much right in front of Conor, and they said when you ask your question tell them who you are. I've covered Floyd for 20 years, he knows me, Conor though didn't really know me.
"So when I was called up to ask my question, I said my name and my outlet and he looked at me and he goes, 'Oh, you're the boxing guy'. So we had a little joke about that that was based on the previous incident.
"As I said I don't cover MMA but I would like to think that Conor and I have a mutual respect between us."
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