Frank Cappuccino Joe Cortez Mills Lane Mitch Halpern The only ones I know. Cortex was my favourite. Who are some good ref's? Who are your favourites?
Tony Orlando & Steve Smoger were two that didn't panic and stop fights too early from what I remember. Steele catches a lot of flak for the Chavez-Taylor stoppage, as well as Tyson-Ruddock 1, but I always thought he was otherwise an excellent ref.
Glad to see Frank Cappuccino get a mention right off the bat. I always thought he was one of the best — enforced the rules but wasn’t overly officious, didn’t get in the way of the action and never made it about himself.
This thread brought Carlos Padilla to mind. I remember him being the 3rd man in the ring in many fights in the 80s. Never really paid attention back then to whether he was a good ref or not, but one incident with him stands out for me. It was during the Terry Norris-Buster Drayton fight on ESPN. Norris dropped Drayton with a left hand, Drayton gets up, they begin exchanging for about 20 seconds, then Padilla does this (time stamped)... This content is protected Was this guy always this spacey?
Padilla ran hot and cold. He could be very good then he could lose control like in Benn v Barkley. All in all a good ref IMO
Smoger was my favorite. He never got in the way and gave guys a chance to work there way out of trouble. Watch Toney vs Jirov and you will see true pro's pro referee.
Refs i liked in no order Frank Cappuccino Double S Steve Smoger Larry Hazzard Mills Lane Mitch Halpern Davey Pearl Richard Green Don't care for most refs in the last 20+ yrs as they interject themselves too much for my liking