Best referee in your opinion?

[daggum]

My personal vote goes to Tony Weeks because of big fight experience and overall reliability.

I'm asking for modern/current referees, but feel free to mention any historical 3rd men.

[NC Uppercut]

Right now my favorite, and seems to to be least biased is most definitely Harvey Dock, who was an amateur boxer in his day. Beyond that they fall in this order for me;
Richard Steele, Arthur Mercante, Eddie Cotton, Steve Willis aka Crazy Eyes, Howard Foster.
Best of all time, Mills Lane and Joe Cortez....before Cortez started having vision problems.
By far Harvey Dock is currently the best.
Tony Weeks is schit. Kenny Bayless is ok, it just seems like he doesn’t like too much in fighting and seems to pick a favorite a lot of times.
All Hail Harvey Dock. Also like Benji Esteves. But don’t like Jack Reiss at all.

[chaosisme]

Right now my favorite, and seems to to be least biased is most definitely Harvey Dock, who was an amateur boxer in his day. Beyond that they fall in this order for me;
Richard Steele, Arthur Mercante, Eddie Cotton, Steve Willis aka Crazy Eyes, Howard Foster.
Best of all time, Mills Lane and Joe Cortez....before Cortez started having vision problems.
By far Harvey Dock is currently the best.
Tony Weeks is schit. Kenny Bayless is ok, it just seems like he doesn’t like too much in fighting and seems to pick a favorite a lot of times.
All Hail Harvey Dock. Also like Benji Esteves. But don’t like Jack Reiss at all.

I agree on Harvey Dock, he's the best current referee. Surprising that he wasn't mentioned in this thread yet.

[ThomasJK]

MY Bad!! It's Benji Estevez and not Cortez. Thanks for the reminder.

Right now my favorite, and seems to to be least biased is most definitely Harvey Dock, who was an amateur boxer in his day. Beyond that they fall in this order for me;
Richard Steele, Arthur Mercante, Eddie Cotton, Steve Willis aka Crazy Eyes, Howard Foster.
Best of all time, Mills Lane and Joe Cortez....before Cortez started having vision problems.
By far Harvey Dock is currently the best.
Tony Weeks is schit. Kenny Bayless is ok, it just seems like he doesn’t like too much in fighting and seems to pick a favorite a lot of times.
All Hail Harvey Dock. Also like Benji Esteves. But don’t like Jack Reiss at all.

I completely forgot about Harvey Dock. Yes I totally agree, Harvey is an excellent ref and I give him high marks as well. I don't think Jack Reiss is all that bad, but he does seems to slow the pace down some and break fighters up moreso then ordering them to fight out of a clinch. But both Benji and Harvey have never left me with that "WTF????" feeling during or after a fight.

[STREET CLEANER]

No Capuccino, no Ward/Gatti fight the way it evolved. He will let them fight.

Mitch Halpern was an excellent ref, too bad he committed suicide.

[jri9d0]

I have to go with Smoger on this one.

Of course I am partially biased because I hail from the east coast.

[NC Uppercut]

No Capuccino, no Ward/Gatti fight the way it evolved. He will let them fight.

Mitch Halpern was an excellent ref, too bad he committed suicide.

I agree about Frank Capuccino, I remember watching the Gatti Ward tribute and ol Frank said he knew if he stopped Gatti v Ward he would never live it down. I think he even said that he knew if he stopped it his career would be over!
I didn’t know Halperin commutes suicide.? When was that

[NC Uppercut]

I have to go with Smoger on this one.

Of course I am partially biased because I hail from the east coast.

Me too. Smoger would let a fight go on unless someone was really in deep trouble, as in a eye falling out of the socket. But my current is definitely Harvey Dock. He seems very unbiased, regardless of race cole or creed...which is very important now days.

[NC Uppercut]

I agree on Harvey Dock, he's the best current referee. Surprising that he wasn't mentioned in this thread yet.

i agree! I didn’t read through all of the posts before posting. After you mentioned the fact that he hadn’t been brought up I read them all. A lot of peeps are just bashing and not respecting them. It’s a very hard job, especially if you are dealing with the lighter weights

[STREET CLEANER]

I agree about Frank Capuccino, I remember watching the Gatti Ward tribute and ol Frank said he knew if he stopped Gatti v Ward he would never live it down. I think he even said that he knew if he stopped it his career would be over!
I didn’t know Halperin commutes suicide.? When was that

Some time after the first Tyson fight. He was heartbroken because his wife or girlfriend left him. He was a good ref, and at that time he was young.