Who was the greatest fighter to become a referee or a different type of official?

Benny Leonard maybe? :conf

 

As a ref Jersey Joe.... DIdnt Joe Louis ref some big fight?

Carlos Palomino and Floyd Patterson were both Head of the State Athletic commission, Califronia and New York.

 

Joe Louis did Frazier vs Quarry II

 

Well, that's a short thread then.

 

Thats right, i remember Richard Pryor joking that Joe Louis let Quarry take an extended beating because that was his way of getting back at the white man

 

Maybe...Did Jimmy Young ever referee a fight? :hey

 

Good question,and if he did , was he, half in / half out of the ring at the time?:think

 

Overall, I'd think Benny Leonard would be pretty hard to top.

Dempsey had a pretty extensive officiating resume, spanning from 1920 to 1959:

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=401054&cat=referee

Jersey Joe Walcott headed the New Jersey State athletic commission from 1975 until 1984, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Jeffries refereed Hart-Root, Burns-O'Brien I and Burns-Squires I. (Burns himself refereed a number of bouts.)

Carpentier refereed Jack-Johnson-Frank Moran in Paris, and Bob Foster refereed Frazier-Ellis II. This raises the spectre of being able to extend this to greatest fighter to become a referee by weight class. For the middleweights, I'll start by naming Willie "The Worm" Monroe. Surely a greater middleweight has performed as a third man, but Willie does hold the only decisive win over Hagler.

Next, we might pinpoint who the greatest welter to become a referee was, as we already have our lightweight representative. We also have a featherweight representative who would be kind of hard to top, another Willie with a different nickname than Monroe's. (If we confine these candidates to the classic eight divisions, we ought to be able to compile this list pretty quickly.)

 

Willie Pep

 

He probably wondered what all the fuss was about.

 

I dont think so, Louis fought in a other era, were the fight didnt end until you count ten. Fights were rarely stop in Louis's hayday.

 

There is no need for the maybe.

 

Benny Leonard.

No one else is close.