Richard Steele (born January 26, 1944) is an American retired
boxing referee
The referee in boxing is the individual charged with enforcing the rules of that sport during a match.
The role of the referee
The referee has the following roles:
*Gives instructions to both boxers before the fight
*Determines when to start or ...
who was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...
.
A former member of the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
, Steele was a teammate of future world Heavyweight champion
Ken Norton
Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. (August 9, 1943 – September 18, 2013) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1967 to 1981, and held the WBC world heavyweight championship in 1978. He is best known for his fights with Muhammad Ali, i ...
in the Marines. He began his career as an amateur boxer while with the Marines, compiling a record of 12 wins and 3 losses before launching a professional career. Steele was All Marines in 1963-64 and participated in the 1964 Olympic Trials, and was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017. He had 16 wins and 4 defeats as a professional fighter. He was also a contestant on ''
To Tell the Truth'' on April 9, 1991, as the central character.
Steele began refereeing fights in the 1970s up until 2007, and he went on to referee in 147 world title fights around the world. His first major fight was
the 1977 slugfest between unbeaten Mexican champions
Carlos Zarate and
Alfonso Zamora
Alfonso Zamora Quiroz (born 9 February 1954) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 1980. He was the Lineal and WBA bantamweight champion, and made five title defenses. As an amateur, he won a silver medal in the ban ...
. Among his other notable fights were
Aaron Pryor
Aaron Pryor (October 20, 1955 – October 9, 2016) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1976 to 1990. He was a two-time light welterweight world champion, having held the WBA title from 1980 to 1983, and the IBF title from 1984 ...
's knock out of
Alexis Argüello
Alexis Argüello (April 19, 1952 – July 1, 2009) was a Nicaraguan professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 1995, and later became a politician. He was a three-weight world champion, having held the WBA featherweight title from 1974 to 19 ...
in ten rounds of their rematch and
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...
's defeat of
Donovan Ruddock
Donovan "Razor" Ruddock (born December 21, 1963) is a Jamaican-born Canadian former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 2001 and in 2015. He is known for his two fights against Mike Tyson in 1991, a fight against Lennox Lewis in 1992, a ...
in 1991,
Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns' 1985 middleweight championship bout, Hagler's
1987 loss to Sugar Ray Leonard, and the first of two fights between
Julio César Chávez and Meldrick Taylor,
[Boxing: Notebook; Power Struggle to Control Chavez](_blank)
/ref> which he stopped with 2 seconds remaining of the final round.
Controversial fights
Steele was sometimes involved in controversial decisions. In the fight between Tyson and Ruddock he officiated, Steele elected to stop the fight in the seventh round as Ruddock appeared to be hurt by several stiff shots by Tyson. This, however, was in contrast to how the fight had gone up until that point with both fighters going back and forth and Tyson being hurt by several of Ruddock's shots. Steele's decision caused a near riot in the crowd, who were all infuriated by the call, and he had to be escorted from the ring for his own protection.
However, what is regarded as Steele's biggest controversy in his long career is the first fight between Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor. Taylor had been winning the fight entering the twelfth and final round and was ahead by enough of a margin on all three judges' scorecards that it would have been impossible for Chavez to win except by knockout. Despite his large lead Taylor had been taking a great deal of punishment from Chavez the entire fight, however, and the undefeated Mexican champion knocked Taylor down with seventeen seconds left in the fight. After Taylor got to his feet after a count of five, Steele asked him twice if he was okay to continue. After Taylor failed to respond, instead looking at his corner, Steele stopped the fight with two seconds remaining and Chavez was declared the victor by technical knockout. Although many fans criticized his decision, considering how much time was remaining in the fight, Steele defended the decision by saying that he was only protecting Taylor from further injury and that "There's no fight worth a man's life". After the fight, Taylor was examined by ringside doctor Flip Homansky and found to have suffered a facial fracture and kidney damage so severe he was urinating pure blood. The decision was upheld after an appeal by Taylor's handlers.
Outside of boxing
Outside the boxing rings, Steele has made a name for himself as a community conscious person, opening a gym, the ''Richard Steele Boxing Club'' in Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, and helping out with Salvation Army
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
charities. In 1999, he was given an award by South African president Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
for refusing to referee fights in South Africa while the Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
laws were still in use there. Richie also worked as a Pit Supervisor at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas in the late 80s-90s
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Richard
1944 births
Living people
American boxing referees
United States Marines
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
American male boxers