Draft:Daniel Hennessey (ring announcer)

Daniel Hennessey (born 15 January 1968, Fall River, Massachusetts, United States) also known as Lt Dan, is a New Zealand and Australia ring announcer for boxing, kickboxing and other combat sports. He is known for his catchphrase, "Would Somebody, Somewhere, Make Some Noise!".

Most recently he is known for the controversy surrounding the Nina Hughes vs Cherneka Johnson WBA World Bantamweight title fight where he announced the wrong winner of the fight, recieving international critisim.

Early life
Hennessey attended Worcester State College. After college he joined the United States Marine Corps in 1991, being in operations DesertShield/Storm. Earlier, while a member of the U.S. Marine Reserves he had participated in a major Christmas Season 1989 fundraiser for the Vietnam Veterans Association of Cape Cod ( also known as The Nam Vets of Cape Cod) by standing at attention for 24-straight hours outside Hyannis radio station WPXC-FM. During the promotion he was only permitted a 5-minute break every two hours. It raised several thousand dollars for the worthy organization and made Hennessey a regular "honorary member" of the WPXC airstaff for several years to come. He went on to serve in the first Persian Gulf War. He left the Marine Corp in 1993 and moved to New Zealand in 1998 to be a Club DJ. In the DJ scene he was well known for his stage name as DJ Danimal. During his DJ time, he was on Radio Hauraki and Max TV between 2000 and 2002.

Announcing and commentating
Hennessey started working at Sky TV in New Zealand in 2003 as a commentator, mainly focusing on basketball for the NZNBL. The biggest accomplishment of his commentating career was head commentating for the FIBA Under 19's world champ in 2012. Hennessey finished with the doing stats for the Breakers in their 2016 season.

Hennessey started ring announcing at a kickboxing show called Kings of Oceania. He made a big break in his career by announcing the 2006 World Grand Prix K1. A few years later, he announced the event that will defined his career where he announced Duco Events David Tua vs Shane Cameron in 2009, which at the time the biggest PPV buy in New Zealand History. Hennessey went on to announce David Tua's last four fights of his career. Hennessey became the main announcer for Duco Event's, King in the Ring, most of Joseph Parker boxing bouts and Joseph Parker vs. Andy Ruiz. Hennessey announced Parker's first World title defense and the non televised bouts of Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn.

Hennessey also announces local events including Sam Rapira New Plymouth, Lance Bryant in Manawatu and many more boxing events. His first world title he announced was Kali Reis vs Maricela Cornejo for the WBC World female middleweight title in April 2016 at The Trusts Arena.

Hennessey would continue announcing world title events across New Zealand and Australia including, Geovana Peres vs Lani Daniels II, Geovana Peres vs Claire Hafner, both were for the WBO World Light Heavyweight title. Hennessey would temporarily base himself in Australia in 2021 as he was employed by Foxtel TV to exclusively MC boxing events in Australia, however, he would move back to New Zealand a year later, while still being employed in Australia.

Nina Hughes vs Cherneka Johnson controversy
On the 12th of May 2024, Hennessey would announce the Vasyl Lomachenko vs George Kambosos Jr World title event in Perth, Australia. On the undercard would feature the WBA World Bantamweight champion Nina Hughes defend her world title against former IBF World Super Bantamweight Champion Cherneka Johnson. Initially Hennessey would announce Nina Hughes as the winner of the fight, however, during celebrations, Hennessey invited the fighters back to the centre of the ring to read out the scorecards, this time announcing Cherneka Johnson the victory. The controversy caused critisim from media across the world, where even ESPN announcer Joe Tessitore was decribed as irate. The promoter of the show Lou DiBella was “shocked” and felt Hughes was “screwed over”, however, there is a rematch clause in the fight. After the fight, Hennessey would take to social media stating that he took full responsibility of his actions and made a public apology. A couple of days after the announcement, Hennessey announced his retirement from announcing due to his mental health and mass backlash, possibly ending his 18 year announcing career. On the 26th May 2024, what suppose to be his last fight night he was going to announce, ended up being an announcement of him continuing is announcement career after recieving an intervention by boxers Joseph Parker and Sam Rapira.