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The third man in the ring
By Tomer Chen | January 7, 2007
By Tomer Chen
Perhaps the hardest job in combat sports (and really, sports in general) is that of the referee. Unintentionally or not, they often, through their attempt (or lack thereof) to enforce the rules of the ring/cage can make or break a fight. A fight may be stopped seconds in from a trigger happy referee who feels that taking 3-4 non-effective shots warrants an automatic stoppage or tragedy may strike from a referee who becomes too lax in protecting a fighter who cannot intelligently defend himself. A referee makes his judgment in a vacuum, but the consequences of his actions can be felt for eternity. A referee may be praised one night for his ability to fairly punish those that break the rules on both sides, but on the other may be criticized for a premature stoppage or for not seeing several blatant fouls. In effect, more often than not the referee becomes one of the critical lenses of combat sports through his actions in the ring, which make leave more of an impact in the minds of fans than that potent right hook or that cinched-in rear naked choke.Â
The first question to ask is: what constitutes a fight sport referee? The referee is an official (usually appointed by the state athletic commission of the state hosting the event, although if there is no athletic commission it may be an organizational/promoter appointment or (more often than not) an export of veteran referees from sanctioned states) who must enforce the rules of the ring, whether it is Marquis of Queensbury rules (either unified rules or state-based rules) or the organizational/state MMA rules. Their flexibility in enforcing the rules properly may make the difference between one party winning by a KO or losing by a foul and even may become a life or death matter.Â
The referee has several key roles: score knockdowns official and make counts, stop the fight if he believes one fighter is not intelligently defending himself, penalize fouls and start and stop rounds accordingly. He must be able to control the combatants effectively in order to maintain a sense of order in the ring or cage. In addition, the referee is generally regarded as being the man responsible for keeping the action going in the ring or cage throughout the course of the fight, breaking and restarting the fighters as necessary. After all, the fight is a form of entertainment and the fans do need want to see 12 rounds of posturing or 5 rounds of fighters holding each other in the corner.  Â
The first role of the referee, scoring knockdowns and making counts, is an element that isn’t (really) seen in MMA but rather in Boxing, K-1 and other stand up combat sports where points are awarded for scoring downs. A clean down is one that is not caused by a trip or foul and that a punch is what officially causes the down (so a fighter going down without getting hit would constitute a trip or slip). If the referee determines that the fighter was pushed down, tripped or slipped, he will make sure the fighter is in OK shape to continue and (if necessary due to a trip or push) will warn the opponent (and may deduct points if warranted). If it is an official down, however, the referee will signal the opponent to head to a neutral corner in order for the count to begin. A count cannot traditionally begin until the opponent has at least headed most of the way to a neutral corner, although an infamous situation where this rule was not enforced was the Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston II fight where ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott (former World Heavyweight Champion & referee in the bout) stopped the bout and awarded a KO to Ali although Ali never went to a neutral corner (instead, he hovered above Liston and taunted him ala Jack Dempsey-Jess Willard) and Walcott had been influenced by Nat Fleischer, founder of The Ring magazine, who was at ringside. The referee will count the fighter out (to 10), although sometimes the referee may wave the contest and award a (T)KO to the victor. If the fighter gets up, he usually will have a mandatory eight count and then the referee will examine the fighter before letting the fight go on. Another point that should be made is that referees traditionally begin counts at 3 or 4, a number which indicates that they including the seconds it took for one party to walk to a neutral corner. Sometimes, however, the referees start at 1, such as the case of Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney II. In that fight, the referee did not begin the count until Dempsey was pretty much across the ring (and there was 2 or 3 second delay before the start of the count due to Dempsey not realizing that the neutral corner rule had been implemented), along Tunney to get a 14 count rest before being up at 9 (according to Nat Fleischer’s timing of the count). The historical controversy of the referee’s call has led the rematch to be call ‘The Battle of the Long Count’. Another way a fighter may buy himself time can be by spitting out his mouthpiece after being downed (as seen in Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo I), which usually will warrant a point deduction from the referee due to the fact that it is a stall tactic by fighters to buy time. In addition, there have been a number of fighters who had (supposedly) faked groin injuries in order to win bouts by disqualification (two notable examples would be Marcel Thil and Max Schemling’s first fight with Jack Sharkey, the only Heavyweight championship bout to have been won on a foul).Â
Expanding on this point is the concept of intelligent defense. Referees in all combat sports notify the fighters before a contest that they must always intelligently defend themselves or the bout will be halted. Intelligent defense is a rather liberal term, given that a fighter cupping his face with his forearms and blocking most shots may be considered intelligent defense to one referee, but poor defense (one worthy of a stoppage) to another. By most accounts, however, eating flush shots without any attempt to evade the shots is generally regarded as a lack of intelligent defense. Even if a fighter is throwing an occasional shot back in the hopes of preventing a stoppage against them, the referee can argue that the fighter is being ineffective with his defense by absorbing too much damage without getting out of a dangerous spot. However, there have been plenty of historical examples (primarily in the 70s and before) where fights were allowed to continue way beyond the point an average referee today would tolerate (one of the most famous examples being Archie Moore-Yvon Durelle I, where Moore was dropped 3 times in the first round and essentially was out on his feet but was allowed to fight on and eventually KOd Durelle to retain his Light Heavyweight championship). There are fans who argue that, because of the seemingly miraculous come from behind KOs (such as Moore-Durelle I, Castro-Jackson and other such fights) that referees owe it to the fans to give as much leeway as possible in their interpretation of intelligent defense as even a hurt tiger can end up mauling the aggressor in the end.Â
Another responsibility of the referee is the handling of fouls. A referee is responsible for warning and penalizing fighters on any fouls committed (usually gradually, although if one party cannot continue due to an intentional foul, it may lead to an automatic DQ). However, there have been cases where referees have either let one or both parties to continue certain fouls (such as excessive clinching in the case of John Ruiz) with virtually no punishment or fouled fighters for questionable or non-existent reasons (such as the case in the first Emanuel Augustus-Courtney Burton fight where Augustus spun out of a clinch and was penalized with a point deduction). Traditionally, the referees have a series of increasing penalties (such as 2 or 3 warnings, then a point deduction, then two (or continued single point) deductions and eventually disqualification or even immediate disqualification for a severe foul that prevents a fighter from continuing or is particularly heinous (such as Mike Tyson’s ear bite, although technically he was allowed to bite twice, being deducted points when the commission suggested the bout continue to Mills Lane)). However, more severe fouls may demand stricter penalties from the get-go. In PRIDE FC, a variation of the traditionally used American point deduction system exists with the yellow cards that not only deduct points from the final scorecards, but also takes away 10% of a fighter’s purse, hurting their bottom line for their stalling or fouling. Although the athletic commissions are empowered to withhold purses, PRIDE actually has the purse deduction system in place in their own rule system.Â
The major responsibility of the referee, however, is to protect the fighter who is taking a pummeling from the opponent. Lots of fans have the biggest problem with this criterion as the crux of referee criticism in Boxing, MMA & K-1 has been on when exactly should the referee ‘jump the gun’ and end the fight. On one hand, fans may criticize a stoppage such as Tito Ortiz-Ken Shamrock II as being too quick with little chance for one party to show that he is completely unable to intelligently defend himself. Some argued that 4-5 pretty flush elbows to the face was not worth halting the bout, especially one that was not even 2 minutes in and that Shamrock wasn’t in serious damage of permanent damage (as seen by his quick recovery and response to the stoppage). On the other hand, if a beating is allowed to continue for too long, a tragedy such as Emile Griffith-Benny Paret III (where Paret sagged against the ropes from a barrage of bombs, was left defenseless for about 10 punches and died from the damage dealt as well as accrued damage from the Gene Fullmer fight before that) or Nigel Benn-Gerald McClellan (where McClellan was crippled from excessive fouling and an ultimate beating that should have been halted earlier) is more than possible.Â
A referee must be able to decide, in a split second, whether the next punch, kick, knee or submission may permanently damage a fighter or if the bout should be allowed to continue. While Archie Moore and Yvon Durelle had a memorable war in 1958, the referees of today would most likely have halted the war in the first round where Moore was dropped three times, although he eventually came back to brutally KO Durelle in the eleventh round. On the other hand, one could argue that the (relatively) more lax refereeing of the early 1900s allowed for more serious long term health problems and potential for ring death. Perhaps one of the most controversial Boxing stoppages of all time, however, was Meldrick Taylor-Julio Cesar Chavez I, where referee Richard Steele halted the bout with just 2 seconds to go. Many fans of Boxing decried the stoppage, arguing Steele should have let the bout reach its conclusion, but Taylor was unresponsive to Steele’s check-up on him prior to allowing the bout to continue, staring off at his corner blankly. Taylor, by most standards, did not show he had the competence to intelligently defend himself (or at least try) and so Steele (at least in my mind) was warranted in protecting the badly hurt fighter’s interest. As stated before, a referee must make all decisions in a vacuum, irregardless of the actual time left in a round or fight. A referee cannot risk getting a fighter seriously hurt or killed because he thought that there was ‘enough time left’ to save them from a severe pummeling. In addition, many fighters may try to plow through the agonizing pain in order to gain glory with the big “W” in their record. The referee must try to maintain some level of sanity in the ring and make sure that a fighter who is too spent to make a semi-reasonable comeback attempt will be protected and (hopefully) allowed to fight (or perhaps even live) another day.  Â
Another activity a referee tends to do in the ring is to break clinches and force restarts. In Boxing, for example, a referee will break a clinch if there is no activity going on and no serious attempt to escape the clinch by either party. Excessive clinching can result in point deductions or even disqualification (as seen in Lennox Lewis-Henry Akinwande) and clinching is frowned upon by virtually all of the fight community as a way to shirk potential punishment and to avoid having to seriously fight. John Ruiz, however, is an example of a fighter who gained infamy for not only excessively clinching but suffering virtually no penalties for his practice of throwing one or two punches before grabbing an opponent and earning decisions through virtual non-activity. In MMA, there is also the element of inactivity on the ground. If one or both parties are not attempting to gain better position or to try to stop the fight (through G&P and/or submissions), the referee will generally warn the fighters to be active before standing them up. In PRIDE FC, there is usually also a yellow or red card awarded to the fighter who was stalling on the ground as well. Some fans have criticized referees for being too active at standing up fighters who were only beginning to gain better position to even begin to land effective strikes or making a serious effort at a submission. On the other hand, there have been fights where the occasional tap or half hearted submission attempt had extended the time on the ground far beyond what it probably should have been. In essence, the patience of the referee becomes a critical factor as one who may favor a ‘go-go-go’ approach will likely force a stand up faster than one who may be willing to give 1-2 minutes to see if a fighter will successfully pass guard or go for that choke or armbar. While there are many facets in combat sports, the fans in the end will not want to pay $50 for a PPV featuring a grabber or lay and prayer or purchase tickets to the card if inactivity is essentially endorsed.Â
At one point, referees were also judges (either the sole or one of the three) in the ring, scoring the deciding ballot if there were conflicting scores on the other judges’ cards (or being the final decider). A referee, in theory, has perhaps the best vantage point for a judge because he is in the middle of the action and can determine which shots were effective or who got the more effective takedowns and submissions. However, the biggest complaint of this job was the potential that a referee would be able to favor one party by giving out questionable (or outrageous) point deductions to one party in order to shift the scoring of his favorite to his favor. Of course, the dual duty (and potential conflict of interest) of the referee was removed from the Boxing world in recent decades, and so this situation rarely, if ever, becomes a possibility nowadays.Â
Nonetheless, as seen above, the job of a referee is much more complicated than one may imagine. There are numerous ways for a referee to react in a scenario and, of course, there are numerous responses from fans to the actions of the referee (good and bad). So, before one judges a referee as ‘totally screwing up’ a fight, there should be due consideration made for the depth of the job and the possibility that, from one of the above vantage points, the referee may be justified in his call. That is not to say, of course, that there are no blatant screw ups/fishy calls made (as seen by the Augustus-Burton point deduction and other head shaking calls that bring to question hometown favoritism and overall hurt the image of combat sports), but, to quote Polonius in Hamlet: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.”; just because one cannot see the forest for the trees does not mean that the referee made the bad call in the end.
Topics: All Topics, Boxing, MMA, Tomer Chen | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
In some ways i think that the referee has the most dangerous job.
he has to keep to lethal boxers in order – with no real ability to physically stop them hitting him.
I always remember the image of Zab Judah placing a glove under Jay Nady’s chin after getting stopped by Kostya Tszyu (the now legendary giraffe dance) and Nady just laughing it off. But yeah, referees have gotten hurt on occasion by the fighters (I remember Gilbert Yvel KOing a referee once and I heard stories of Boxing refs getting swelling and broken jaws from walking into the middle of a launched bomb by fighters. There is also the story of Ruby Goldstein passing out in the Joey Maxim-‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson fight before Robinson did).