Unraveling the Referee Mitch Halpern Mystery
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Richard Steele, a top referee in professional boxing, explained, “He (Mitch Halpern) was my son. I taught him everything I knew. He took what I had taught him, and with his great natural ability, made himself a great referee. I got out of the ring one night, and a young man walked up and introduced himself and said he wanted to be a referee. I have had numerous people come to me and say that. I always tell them, ‘I will meet you at the gym Monday.’ He (Mitch Halpern) was there Monday. Most other guys never show up. He worked hard. He worked harder than anyone I had ever seen. He wanted to be the best.”
Mitch Halpern refereed 214 pro bouts and 87 world title bouts between 1992 and 2000 before taking his life at age 33 in front of his ex-wife and daughter. For 26 years, the mystery of why has haunted many top boxing officials, referees and boxing fans. Halpern would have only been 59 years old today if he had lived, and would have refereed a lifetime of professional bouts.
Some have compared the self-demise of referee Mitch Halpern to the late referee Richard Green, who was 46 years old when he took his own life after Deuk-Koo Kim died four days after his lightweight championship bout against Ray Mancini. Kim’s mother took her life three months after that, followed by Green eight months after the bout.
Halpern had two blemishes worth noting. The first, the WBC World Featherweight title bout between Gabriel Ruelas and Jimmy Garcia at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on May 6, 1995, ended with Garcia being stopped in the eleventh round and dying 13 days later. Halpern did not take his life until August of 2000, over five years later.
The last two bouts Halpern refereed ended in controversy, and may have been the disintegration of character which did Mitch Halpern in from his viewpoint.
On August 12, 2000, at Paris Paris Las Vegas, Halpern refereed heavyweight Richie Melito’s knockout of Thomas Williams at 2:37 of the first round. The bout was investigated by the FBI as a fixed fight. No video of the bout exists today.
On November 8, 2004, following a three-week jury trial, promoter Robert Mitchell and boxer Thomas Williams were convicted of one count of Conspiracy to Commit Sports Bribery and one count of Sports Bribery and Attempt to Commit Sports Bribery for participating in a series of fixed fights from 1995 through August 2000 to enhance the boxing career of professional heavyweight Richie Melito, Jr. A third individual, boxing promoter Robert Mittleman, pled guilty to two counts of Sports Bribery and one count of Bribery of a Public Official, and was sentenced on December 6, 2004, to three years of probation, and six months of home detention. His sentence was reduced in exchange for his cooperation and testimony at trial. Mittleman’s guilty plea included an admission he arranged a fixed fight between Williams and heavyweight Brian Nielsen in Denmark in 2000, and he also attempted to bribe a federal prosecutor and United States District Judge to get the case against Williams dismissed. The bout traveled four years to reach a conviction.
On August 8 2000, Halpern the second and bout Mitch Halpern refereed at Paris Paris was a World Boxing Association vacant World Light Flyweight title bout, between Beibis Mendoza and Rosendo Alvarez, in which Alvarez incurred two points deductions, was warned several other times, and was ultimately disqualified for low blows in the seventh round of his bout with Beibis Mendoza. Halpern’s last bout between Mendoza and Alvarez is on YouTube at this video, and apparently, I am the first boxing reporter to go backwards in the time machine to find the bout and study what happened. The bout was marked by both fighters exchanging low blows.
As the bout progressed, trainer Freddie Roach was seen in the corner of Alvarez. The bout featured a great deal of fouling and roughhouse tactics, mostly by Alvarez. The key to this analysis the lookback revealed these so-called ‘low blow’ rulings were questionable. The final low blow, which ended the bout, was on the beltline, but it was not a low blow. The conclusion: the last two bouts refereed by Halpern were the worst of his career. Certainly, the blow which ended the final bout he refereed, the light flyweight title bout, was not a good call at all. Nobody got hurt in these two bouts, but when combined with the fighter who had lost his life previously in one of Halpern’s bouts, it appears Halpern lost his confidence and blamed himself. Being a referee is a tough job. Only Halpern could understand what went on in his own mind. He was one of the best referees in his time. And so it was. Being a referee is a serious business. You cannot understand it unless you live it.
Sign up to DAZN For World Class Boxing
Follow @realcombatmediasports on Instagram
Follow Real Combat Media on Facebook
Support Real Combat Media Charity Foundation
Shop at Real Combat Media Fight Store
COMMENTS
English