Were there any referees who were really bad? Jersey Joe Walcott certainly fit that description. Any others? How was Mills Lane?
Walcott's poorness as a ref is overstated, in my opinion. Mills Lane is very arguably the greatest ever ref.
Mills Lane was outstanding. Yes, I'm sure he had a few bad calls, but with as many high profile bouts as he refereed there's bound to be a few flubs along the way. Kenny Bayless is the greatest ref of this generation. Steve Smoger is great as well. Arthur Mercante is probably the GOAT, although he had a number of really rotten efforts near the end, specifically Quartey-Oba Carr. Michael Ortega is hot and cold: outstanding one night and then wimpy and indecisive the next.
Mills Lane was one of the very best. Bayless and Smoger are clearly the standouts of the last 15-20 years. Worst high profile active ref is Mercante Jr. Besides Cotto-Foreman, which is his most famous bit of stupidity, here are a few others: [yt]uehFuWEkI-Q[/yt] What the **** was he counting for? [yt]Lf9iZHHTBgQ[/yt] [yt]1fVHQAWh-r0[/yt] What are you waiting for, a Benny Parrett type finish? [yt]rKE9jPXbHYE[/yt] Oh wait, I forgot that Mercante already was a ref in a fight where a fighter died. http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92964&page=1
Give me: Richard Green -- sadly ended his own life after reffing just one more fight after Mancini-Kim tragedy Zach Clayton Frank Cappucicno I also like Randy Neumann
Tony Perez allowing Tommy Morrison to fight out of his momentary difficulties.... [yt]TF_-8hI_v9U[/yt]
Green and Cappuccino were also great refs. It was tragic that Green took his life after the Kim tragedy. He did fine in that fight and in my opinion any other competent ref would've had the same tragedy on their hands. Kim simply never allowed himself to be put in a spot for the fight to be stopped until it was too late and he was on the canvas. Cappuccino upon retirement said he knew it was time to quit when he found himself worried more about his bum leg than he was about the fighters. That's a mark of a truly caring and concerned ref. Steve Smoger, Kenny Bayless, and Tony Weeks are also 3 great refs who all walk the line between letting fighters fight and keeping control of the fight perfectly.
I think Mills Lane is the best Ref ever. Didn't have to worry about something going wrong or him letting something go on in the fight that shouldn't
That was really atrocious. It looked like he enjoyed watching Moore get clobbered while defenseless like that.
I think his name was Charlie daggert het let beau jack take to many punches against ike Williams I think in maybe 48
Mills was good. The fight he sort of looked foolish in was when Tommy was holding him and Kinchen at the same time in round 4. Tommy survived the round , which is all that mattered. I always liked Richard Steele. I thought in the 1980s he was excellent and kept on top of the fight and made the guys fight. People remember the one or two bad incidents a referee has than the hundreds and maybe in the thousands of fights which went well. It seems like a hard job.
A ref who was not very good was a guy named Joey Curtis. Did the Bramble/Crawley fight in early 1986. Very indecisive. Let the fight go on too long and then stops it after Crawley is obviously finished on the ground.
