Have Refs Been Named For This Weekend's Fights?

[TheGreatA]

Jersey Joe Walcott's performance in Ali-Liston II was laughable aswell.

He had no idea of what he was doing but then again Walcott never claimed he was an actual referee. Senseless to make a boxer officiate one of the most important heavyweight title fights of all time.

He did referee Patterson vs McNeeley previously and that fight too went out of hand with headbutting, elbowing, low blows, McNeeley being floored about 20 times, etc.

The guy who helped Yoan Hernandez up, ruled it a slip, and then started a count after 10 seconds of hesitation has to be up there.

I remember watching that one live and it was a disgrace. Didn't change the outcome though.

It's not the first time I've seen it happen. If you ever ask George Chuvalo, he'll tell you a story of him fighting Mike DeJohn, knocking him out of the ring, the referee pulling him back up and actually deducting Chuvalo a point. DeJohn must have been KO'd atleast 3 times during that bout with the referee helping him get back up every time.

[TheGreatA]

I only found out the other day that Wyatt Earp used to be a boxing ref, and a really bad one at that.

He was a referee in Bob Fitzsimmons vs Tom Sharkey, a fight in which Sharkey was KO'd clean and Fitzsimmons was DQ'd by Earp for no reason. Maybe he bet on Sharkey.

I believe Earp always carried a gun with him to "ensure" that the boxers would fight cleanly.