Boxing Referee Steele Retires at 57

Richard Steele, the third man in the ring in some of boxing’s most memorable bouts, has retired as a referee.

The 57-year-old Steele said he told Nevada Athletic Commission officials after the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Diego Corrales fight Saturday that it was his last.

“Marc [Ratner, the commission’s executive director] said I did a wonderful job and I asked him if I could say one more thing to the group,” Steele said. “I told them, ‘It’s time for me to quit,’ and it just knocked everybody out.”

Steele worked the Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns fight in 1981 and Leonard’s fight against Marvin Hagler six years later. In 30 years as a referee he worked 167 championship bouts.

Still, it was his decision to stop Meldrick Taylor’s fight against Julio Cesar Chavez with two seconds to go in the final round that many fans remember him by. Taylor was leading on two scorecards but Chavez got the win, leading Steele to be booed by fight fans for years.