?[Steve] Smoger is widely thought of as fair and unbiased. People in boxing know that certain referees favor the house fighter, but that?s not the case with Smoger. Fighters and trainers trust him far more than they trust most referees.??Thomas Hauser
The Scandal
Quite some time ago, Thomas Hauser wrote an article for Seconds.Out.com entitled ?The Strange Case of Steve Smoger.? In it, Hauser, with scalpel in hand, went into great detail as to how Smoger, a municipal court judge in New Jersey, was found guilty of misconduct in office leading to his resignation and almost to his disbarment as a lawyer in 2002.
Hauser concluded his scathing article the full details of which are found in The Strange Case of Steve Smoger as follows:
?So what?s the proper resolution?
?Boxing is a cesspool. Promoters have admitted paying bribes to world sanctioning organizations. Too many state athletic commission officials are corrupt. Conflicts of interest are taken for granted. To single out Steve Smoger for a permanent ban would be unfair and hypocritical. Boxing accepts, and at times extols, much worse conduct.
?In the ring, Smoger has carried out his duties with distinction and honor. Still, he has been found guilty of significant wrongdoing. These are not mere technical violations, and they should not be ignored.
?Smoger is not now under suspension in any state. Rather, he has relinquished his license in one jurisdiction and it has expired in another. That might not be a bad course of action to follow across the board. Then, after a decent interval, Smoger should be allowed to reapply for a license to referee in each jurisdiction and welcomed back into the fold.?
Hauser chose to be judgmental in his treatment of Smoger though in so doing, he was fair and balanced. I will limit my narrative to Smoger the referee, but for those interested in more details of this case (some of which are pretty shocking), see 800 A.2d 840 (2002) 173 N.J. 25
Many years later
?I am honored to address my fellow brother and sister officials of Canada by way of my referee clinic???Steve Smoger
The reason the Hauser article resonated was that I recently noted that the now equally acclaimed Smoger will be conducting an Informational Referee Clinic on April 12. 2014 at the Marquis of Granby Pub/Restaurant Banquet Facility in Toronto, centrally located near historic Maple Leaf Gardens. The prolific ?Double-S? has also conducted these clinics in Delaware and Sint Maarten. Now Delaware I get, but Sint Maarten falls under the category of good work if you can get it. And when it comes to getting good work, no one surpasses Steve Smoger, whose 30-year career includes officiating more than 850 bouts, averaging more than 27 per year and highlighted by more than 165 world title fights. In 2012, he worked 55 fights.
Whether Latvia, U.S Virgin Islands, Greece, especially Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Connecticut, Russia, Oklahoma, or God knows where, SS has suitcase and will travel. Throw a dart and he has been there. Of course, this international travel begs the question how is Smoger (essentially an East Coast-based official) able to get such assignments elsewhere while other highly competent local referees are passed over? For example, on March 1, 2014, Smoger worked a championship fight in Gauteng, South Africa. He followed this up with three bouts in beautiful Philipsburg, Sint Maarten on March 15 and then shortly after journeyed to Panama City, Panama for a six-rounder.
Smoger?s Resiliency
To say the least, Steve has bounced back incredibly well from those dark days in 2002 as he now receives one plum assignment after another and probably has enough awards to require an addition to his New Jersey home. Ring Sports Magazine and Boxing Scene Magazine recognized Steve as ?Referee of the Year? in 1993. In 1994, Flash Magazine named Steve ?Referee of the Year.? Also, in 1995, Steve placed runner up to Mills Lane for ?Best Referee in the World? in a poll conducted by Boxing Illustrated.
A New Jersey and Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, Smoger is also this year?s Ring 10 Arthur Mercante Sr. Award winner as a referee who ?exemplifies honesty and integrity in the sport of boxing and who attempts to the best of their ability to keep the sport safe and at the same time entertaining.?
The following link connects to two lengthy interviews SS had with writer Adam Abramowitz that provides great insight into Smoger?s views on boxing and other subjects: http://www.saturdaynightboxing.com/2013/01/the-snb-interview-steve-smoger-part-ii.html
Smoger?s Style
?My proclivity is to allow the fight to go to its natural conclusion, and to let them solve it and to let them resolve it?Sometimes, there comes a time when I have to make the call. But if I can prolong it and give them every opportunity, so be it.??Smoger
?Smoger is a gutty guy. He has balls. He?s a ballsy referee, and I think that that?s what people want to see.??Bob Arum
?The most amazing aspect of boxing ? is the ability of a human being to get up when he?s hurt.??Smoger
Smoger has a fan-friendly semi-lassez-faire style. He is a ?let-?em-go? sort of referee that will let fighters fight and not intervene unless absolutely necessary. He always does his homework and is a third man that most (but clearly not all) like.
The Twilight
?What?s indisputable is that Smoger never should?ve placed Tapia in position to take a crushing shot that could?ve done permanent damage. Smoger usually is applauded for being a fighter-friendly referee who?s willing to allow vulnerable boxers to fight out of trouble, a practice that sometimes allows them to come back and win.??The Record (NorthJersey.com)
Smoger was once one of the best referees?often referred to as an invisible man. However, since 2011 he has done work that has sullied his reputation and strongly suggests he may have seen his best days. Long in the tooth and with his belt almost up to his chest, SS can no longer move well, staying too far away from the action, and when he does get in close he appears too frail to break the fighters apart. Moreover, his long-standing tolerance of allowing both fighters to hold and hit is wearing thin. He has even dispensed with his strange leg raising ritual at the end of a round. The following instances support these criticisms:
On December 7, 2013, the relentless James Kirkland pummeled and battered Glen Tapia in the sixth round. With Tapia clearly done and against the ropes, Smoger moved to stop the fight, but he was too late to keep Glen from taking one last vicious left hook. That shot left Glen standing but totally in another planet as the ?Touchy-Feely? Smoger, as is his weird wont and for whatever reason, planted a kiss on him. It was scary to witness and Smoger was subjected to heavy criticism.
On October 25, 2013, Smoger continually admonished and swore at Armenian Karo Murat even shoving him in the face, and then, after the bout, he hugged and kissed Bernard Hopkins. Despite both men fighting dirty (particularly Murat), Smoger seemed totally biased against Murat throughout the bout. This one was embarrassing to witness as SS?s well-documented affinity for Bernard was more than apparent but his inexplicable contempt for Murat was discomforting. Said Jimmy Tobin in the Cruelest Sport, ?Referee Steve Smoger, the patron saint of morbid bystanders, molested Murat nearly as often as Hopkins did.? On March 29, 2014, Smoger was involved in a dreadful clinch fest in which Thomas Dulorme put on a clinic on how to hold without getting caught against Karim Mayfield. SS also failed to call two low blows on Dulorme. Even the overly tolerant and politically correct HBO announcers commented on this one.
There have been other eyebrow-raising instances. For example, the way Double-S handled the stoppage in the second Cotto-Margarito affair suggested to some that he was looking to the doctors for a noncontroversial way out when he had the authority to stop the fight on his own (though admittedly many were skittish about the Margo?s eye even before the fight began). Conversely, he let Pawel Wolak continue against Delvin Rodriquez (during their first bruising fight) even though Wolak?s eye looked worse than Margarito?s. ?It?s ugly but I can stand it. Let them roll,? said Smoger about Wolak?s eye swollen to the size of a small grapefruit.
And the way Smoger let Roy Jones Jr. take unnecessary and dangerous punishment from Denis Lebedev in Moscow in 2011 drew harsh criticism, as did the manner in which he permitted Kelly Pavlik to pummel Edison Miranda after Miranda was clearly finished in their 2008 fight. ?I didn?t stop the [Jones] fight because there were only a matter of seconds remaining?and it seemed that Roy was pretending, trying to trick his opponent?He did this repeatedly in the fight. So I thought Jones was doing the same thing here, trying to deceive Lebedev in the final seconds of the fight in order to lure Denis in to land a big punch [which Jones managed to do in the previous round],?said Steve. This was of no consolation to Jones who lay face down and unconscious.
On this same Moscow card, Ugandan Hamza Wandera took way too much punishment from Ismayl Sillakh. At one point Wandera even turned his back and ran from Ismayl and that should have prompted an immediate stoppage but it didn?t. In the end, Wandera took crunching haymakers before Smoger finally deigned to step in.
SS also was in his signature delay mode when Shane Mosley took a brutal whipping from the late Vernon Forrest in January 2002.
In all fairness, given the incredible large number of fights SS has worked, it?s no wonder he had had some bad ones, but given the risks involved, the ?bad ones? must be kept to an absolute minimum.
There are many that worship at the altar of referee Smoger. To criticize him is to risk heresy if not banishment from some sycophantic organization. But boxing has received heavy criticism of late (especially after the Magomed tragedy, the death of Russian Roman Simakov, ring deaths in Indonesia, the two recent fatalities in Mexico, and the critical injuries suffered by Colombian Jose Carmona following his KO loss to Jorge Arce in Mexico n November 2013).
Boxing has been termed more demolition derby than sweet science with a growing disregard for anything called defense. Maybe so, maybe not, but my concern is that while it might seem timely to anoint Steve Smoger and his ?let ?em fight? style as the best thing since sliced toast, I worry that the safety of the fighter might be overlooked in the process of anointment. That to me is far more important than whether a referee is ?ballsy? because he has a ?proclivity? to allow fights to go to their natural conclusion (which by the way carries with it an undertone of last man standing). I prefer my referees to be less tolerant, less vocal, less celebratorious, and more focused on the well-being of the boxers instead of boasting about some intrusive sense of when to stop a fight so that the fighter is safe and the fans are sated. No, I?d rather the referee keep in mind the adage ITALICBetter one punch too early than one punch too late.
But be all this as it may, there is no question that Steve Smoger someday will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. After all, once the close knit Boxing Establishment narrows its focus on someone. you can almost predict the year that ?someone? will be inducted. The increasingly irritating Hype machine Michael Buffer even refers to him as the ?Future Hall of Famer.?
Back to Hauser
To reiterate, Hauser concludes in his aforementioned article, ?Boxing is a cesspool?officials are corrupt. Conflicts of interest are taken for granted. To single out Steve Smoger for a permanent ban would be unfair and hypocritical.??
Fast Forward
By now, and many years later, Hauser?s own conflict of interest when he became a consultant to HBO has been vetted. Suffice it to say that many?even his peers?asked: how can you be a true journalist and also a consultant to the industry which you?re covering?
But then, boxing is a cesspool. Conflicts of interest are taken for granted. To single out Thomas Hauser would be unfair and hypocritical.??
By Hauser?s own logic, spurious as it may be, I must again agree on all accounts.
Ted Sares is a private investor who enjoys writing about boxing (though he plans to wind down in 2014). A member of both the RAW and the Elite Powerlifting Federation, Ted is one of the oldest active competitors in the world and will be competing in Westbrook, Maine, Amherst, Nova Scotia, Venice, California, and Charlottesville, Virginia in future months.
