Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey and others were working as referees in some well-known fights. How do you estimate their 'referee skills'? Maybe some interesting stories from their fights as referees. And why today we don't see Holyfield, Tyson or Lewis as a 3rd man in the ring?
Jack Dempsey was heavily criticised when he was referee and sole judge in the Charles - Layne fight where he scored 7 rounds even, 2 to Lane and 1 to Charles as experts wrote Ezzard clearly won.
Charles' team was mad after the fight, Ray Arcel especially. Dempsey however said that that 7 rounds he scored 'even' were so close he couldn't pick the winner in any of them. Anyway, I think having referee as sole judge is bad idea. There were more examples when referee scored the fight and had ridiculous scorecards.
Such as Patterson-Ellis and Terrell-Wepner. Oh, wait! Same referee and same sole judge in both fights. Harold Valan has some legacy there. Everytime someone makes up a list of the worst decisions in boxing, he is always named for these two fights.
:yep Don't know how the WBA came with idea that referee will score the world title fight solely. Seems strange now.
I know what you mean. In the case of Terrell-Wepner, which of course was non-title, the bout was fought in Atlantic City and in New Jersey they always had the ref as sole arbiter. But in the case of Patterson-Ellis, I agree, it was for the world title. What was that about? Even if it was a Swedish rule, one would think the WBA rules would supercede it.