Smooth is an apt description. If nothing else, it is a certain indication that viewers will be told exactly how it is when the punching commences.

If we go back through the decades, commentary legends such as Stewart McPherson, Raymond Glendenning, Eamonn Andrews, Harry Carpenter, Reg Gutteridge and Des Lynam have been hard acts to follow. But "Rawly," as he is known in the trade, does it brilliantly as the outstanding operator currently behind the ring mic. What you hear is what you get, no hype, hysteria or hometown bias.

Not only does he have an insightful knowledge of boxing, but he is one of the most rounded of sports journalists, beginning, as most of the good guys do, in grassroots reporting on a local newspaper, then agencies, progressing to a career that has embraced his presence at a fistful Olympic Games, football World Cups and track and field championships.

Rawling has commentated or written on a variety of sports, from athletics to sailing, darts to football and golf to boxing, the sport he says he fell in love with after hauling himself out of bed in the early hours as a schoolboy to watch the then Cassius Clay - who was to become his all-time favourite fighter, Muhammad Ali - wrest the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in Miami in 1964.

This Sunday morning, it is we who will be up before dawn, while Rawling will be ringside late on Saturday night Nevada time at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas telling BT Sport Box Office subscribers how it is as Tyson Fury defends his World Boxing Council world heavyweight title to complete the titanic trilogy against Deontay Wilder. It will be, he says, a fight that cannot fail to enthral.

And he has seen many that have done so. Among those lodged high in his memory is the night at the London Arena when Nigel Benn got up after a long count in the first round to defeat Gerard McClellan, the American sustaining life-changing injuries in a fight which, he says, "touched every aspect of boxing, showing how it is capable of producing great passion within a brutal battle, and ultimately tragedy, too, which can make your question your own Involvement in the sport."

On a more positive note, Rawling rates Ricky Hatton’s career-defining acquisition of the world light welterweight title from Kostya Tszyu at the Manchester Arena as one of the most memorable and certainly most atmospheric fight nights he can remember, as was Joe Calzaghe’s conquest of Mikkel Kessler in Cardiff.

He remains an ardent fan of the late Ali, as well as Floyd Mayweather Jr and Canelo Alvarez. "As far as Ali is concerned, there has never been a sports figure in my lifetime who has mesmerised the world as he did," Rawling said.

The 64-year-old Sheffield-born father of three is renowned for doing his homework but he emphasises that he believes the art of good commentating is telling the viewers or listeners - he has worked regularly for BBC radio too - is what you see, not what has been written down.

"I always try to give the right sort of balance," said Rawling. "Commentators will always have their critics, but I like to think I approach things from a neutral standpoint."

A graduate of Manchester University, he abandoned a teaching course to take up journalism and, in a 40-odd year career, he has worked for numerous broadcasting outlets, including the BBC, ITV, Setanta, BoxNation and now BT. He was boxing correspondent for the BBC and also The Guardian, for whom he still writes occasionally, and won the Sony sports commentator of the year award as BBC athletics correspondent.

Outside of work his main interest is golf (“I have played a lot of awful golf on some glorious courses") and walking his beloved 11-year-old German Shepherd, Millie. He is, of course, on friendly terms with a number of great boxers and rates Calzaghe and Lennox Lewis as arguably the best of British. Plus, of course, Fury.

"I have known and liked Tyson since he was an amateur back in 2008," Rawling said. "I have always found him to be an absolute delight, very bright and hugely talented. Beating Wladimir Klitschko was one of the outstanding performances by a British fighter, as was his victory over Deontay Wilder. 

"But even better than that, I thought, was how in his first fight with Wilder he amazingly prised himself off the floor in the last round which he then went on to win, and in my view won the fight though it was given a draw. He was robbed."

How does the candid commentator see the outcome on Saturday night? "I honestly think Tyson will win again in similar fashion. For such a big man he has extraordinary athleticism.

"Last time, the way he changed his style to show such aggression was remarkable. His team of new trainer Sugarhill Steward, straight-talking father John and former world champion Andy Lee had worked out that Wilder could not unleash his phenomenal right hand with the same degree of force when pushed onto the back foot and I think that’s how it’s going to be again. 

"Tyson did a number on him then and I think we will see something similar."

Rawling is full of praise for the way BT presents boxing, and for the professionalism of his fellow frontmen Paul Dempsey, vastly experienced analyst, ex-champion Richie Woodhall and, of course, the ever-effervescent Steve Bunce.

He is also looking forward to renewing an acquaintance with BT’s new signing, Carl Frampton. 

"It will be great working alongside him," he said. "Not only a superb fighter but someone whose company I always enjoy."

And so to Las Vegas - and over to boxing’s smooth operator…

Whether his pal Tyson triumphs again, or in the most unpredictable of all sports, things go belly-up - as they did at Tottenham a fortnight ago when former Olympic champion Anthony Joshua's shock loss put the kibosh on the proposed £200 million Battle of Britain - the best bet in the punters’ paradise is that mellifluous man with the mic will call it as it is.