What's The Worst Refereeing Performance You've Seen?

When Ingemar Johanssen knocked out Eddie Machen the referee should have been arrested and put on trial.
It wasn't just the fact he allowed Ingo to hit the unconcious Machen with devastating blows,even when Machen's cornermen got up to administer treatment under the ropes to Machen,he insisted on completing the count as they did that,then merely walked away and showed no concern for Machen whatsoever.

 

There aren't any more celebrity referees like Jersey Joe Walcott and Joe Louis, which is a good thing. Moreover, I believe only active referees should be allowed to officiate in important bouts. Active referees officiate in bouts on a regular basis during a given year.

- Chuck Johnston

 

There are still plenty of referees that are ex-pugs but you're right, very few that attained household name status when they were in the ring shirtless. :think

I can think of many offhand that had decent runs in their day and even fought on TV enough to be recognized by anyone from around then (much like Freddie Roach, though never elite, was familiar to boxing fans long before he started down the road to becoming a Hall of Fame trainer) - for every Kenny Bayless, Tony Weeks, or Steve Smoger that never boxed professionally a day in their life, you have a Joe Cortez or Wayne Kelley who did log some time - but none were ever as much as serious ranked contenders. Usually their careers were relatively short-lived before they decided to bow out from the 'hurting' side of the business - which may contribute greatly to why their faculties are intact enough to put in years or decades worth of service in alternate roles as judges and referees (usually overlapping quite a bit).

 

Reid v Ottke

Ref might as well have said to Reid..."shake hands and don't come out fighting.....or else."

 

Mares vs Agbeko. Made me despise a fighter and a referee forever in the same fight.

 

An amateur fight during the 2012 London Olympics is a strong candidate.

A fighter who was repeatedly floored, and genuinely hurt, was continually told off for "diving".

The referee caught the next plane home.

 

Yeah, Roger Tilleman.

I can't say for certain that he was a bad referee (probably was)...but he was certainly corrupt. Actually warning Reid for punching Ottke in the face.

 

there have been so many cases of bad refereeing and so many cases of great refereeing, I think depending on the climate the referee has pressure to either keep a fight going too long or stop it quickly and thee is a thin line. As far as biased or paid referees this is also a big factor and a common occurrence in recent years

 

I didn't write my last post as a knock on former pro fighters as referees in general. In fact, there have been quite a number of capable referees who were fighters. What I didn't like about Jersey Joe Walcott or Joe Louis is that they hadn't worked as referees on a regular basis, let alone having not demonstrated a certain level of competence while doing the job.

Every boxing referee has made mistakes. The best referees have integrity, know the rules and fine points of boxing, keep the mistakes on their part to a minimum and have the knack to keep order in the ring in a fair manner and without interfering with the flow of bouts unnecessarily. In addition, referees have to work on a regular basis in order to keep their skills sharp.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Armstrong v Ambers
Mares v Agbeko
Ottke v Reid

 

I agree with all that - and wasn't actually casting aspersions that you were disparaging all former-boxer referees. I think you just made a good observation that "celebrity refs" (that is, guys who are more famous as boxers than as referees and who probably only get their assignments due to it being a big event and them being a "big" name from their prizefighting career) have become a thing of the past, and that is a good thing...and further observing that nowadays the best fighters-turned-refs are ones who didn't achieve much success in their erstwhile role (else they would have stuck with that, obviously - and probably taken more head shots in the bargain than you'd want an official in charge of closely monitoring two other person's health in a bloodsport and needing to make snap judgments requiring alertness to have ever taken...)