I liked mills because he took no **** from the fighters was very firm and didnt have to worry about him making a mistake, the fights he refereed he was always in control
I always liked Tony Perez. He would let fights come to their natural conclusion rather than stopping it too fast etc. He also stayed out of the way for the most part and let the fighters fight. Too many referees today want to be on TV and get way too involved in the fight.
Harry Gibbs he used to make me laugh when I was younger if the boxers misbehaved he would clip them round the head .i used to sit there waiting for one of them to hit him back.
Cappuccino was fantastic. I was impressed with when he said he knew it was time to retire (5 years ago?) when his leg went bad and he was more worried about his bum leg holding up in the ring than the fighters. He was/is a class act.
I've heard Gibbs tell a boxer to" get up,cmon son, you're not hurt." He always argued he was trying to get the best out of both boxers,and show a good fight. Good guy, and a great referee. imo. Don't think much intimidated Harry, the night it all kicked of at the Hagler /Minter fight , he left his seat to stand in front of Terry Lawless's wife and shield her from the bottles that were flying down from the upper tiers,he mentions it in his autobiography ,and it's true because I was there. That wasn't Gibbs, it was fellow Welshman Adrian Morgan , and he blew it on the night. "I'll fight him again he's nothing ."Jones
He was also there for many big moments in the sport... A few each of B-Hop's, Lewis', and Tszyu's title defenses, several Tyson fights including Spinks...and of course Ward vs. Gatti I. Not once did he leave a messy footprint in any of 'em.
Yep. I was always very impressed with the way Mills Lane was able to keep control, even under the most bizzare of circumstances. I shutter to think what would have happened had it been Joe Cortez in the ring instead of Mills Lane for Holyfield-Bowe II with the fan man or Holyfield-Tyson II with the ear bite. He'd probably have DQ'd half of the crowd while yelling a bunch of giberish while making weird faces.
My bad, I don't know why I thought that was Harry in the Jones/Ramsey fight. I don't have any issue with a ref coaxing a fight out of a couple of fighters who are hesitant. Seen it enough times and they're absolutely right to do so, but Smoger's coaxing Lou while he was down, during the count, was showing way too much partiality and altered the natural course of the fight. I'll bet Jerry Quarry would have loved that coaxing in the Chuvalo fight. As for Harry, loved his style. But you should watch the Zarate-Gomez fight again. He definitely was intimidated in that one. A Gomez DQ would not have been out of the question in some countries.