Steve Smoger is a great referee.....He made a mistake in Lebedev vs Jones but hey, who never did a mistake ?
What I never liked about Smoger was what he perpetuated in the Lou Savarese - Lance Whitaker fight. It was an earlier round, maybe the 4th, but I'm not sure, where Whitaker floored Lou. Smoger started his count and it didn't appear that Lou was going to get up. At '8' Smoger coaxed him up. He said, "7...8...come on get up...9" and Lou got up. He had no business doing that. An official has to be impartial. He can coax a fight out of the fighters by pulling them both together in the middle of the ring and tell them both to pick it up, but that was showing undue partiality. Lou was not going to get up. He was a little foggy just like Quarry was against Chuvalo. Clayton didn't tell Jerry to get up and he lost. Lou went on to win the decision.
Mag1965...re Joey Curtis letting being indecisive and letting the Bramble/Crawley fight go on too long...he is of course probably more known for stopping the Weaver-Dokes fight...too early by most estimates. Seems Joey covered both extremes !?
I always thought Richard Steel was kinda dodgy Look at the Tyson/Ruddock fight in 1991, Tyson constantly hitting after the bell, intentionally low blowing etc, he hardly gets any warnings. Fast forward to 1999 - Tyson/Norris, Same Tyson, Same Steel, same tactics, tyson hits norris after the bell, Tyson is docked 2 points Difference between the 2 fights? Tyson was managed by King in 91 and not in 99
I never got the love for Mills Lane. In his biggest fight (Tyson/HolyfieldII) he blew it. Tyson bit Holyfield ear, Holyfield properly screamed and complained, and yet Lane took no action. Tyson then took a chunk out of Holyfield's ear a few seconds later. The best modern ref in my opinion was Richard Steele. A quality performer who had to put up with a lot of crap by bitter gamblers, and those who jumped on the bandwagon....