Boxing notebook: Steele quitting as referee

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2001 | 10:32 a.m.

It was during the sixth round of last Saturday's fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Diego Corrales at the MGM Grand Garden that referee Richard Steele made a decision he had been considering for some time.

"I knew it was over," he said of his career as an official. "I caught myself just walking around, thinking this is such a great fight that it would be the perfect time to retire."

Following the fight, which Mayweather won by 10th-round TKO, Steele shared his decision to retire with his fellow employees of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

"Marc (Ratner) said I did a wonderful job and I asked him if I could say one more thing to the group," Steele recounted. "I told them 'It's time for me to quit' and it just knocked everybody out.

"No one saw it coming."

Steele, 57, is stepping away after 30 years as a referee and 167 world-title fights.

"We'd discussed it for a couple of months, but neither of us knew about the timing," his wife, Gladys, said. "But he was ready to retire and leaving after (Saturday's) fight allows him to do it at the top of his game.

"I'm happy about it."

So is he.

"I've always said I'd never let my career go too long," he said. "I remember seeing Willie Mays and Magic Johnson play too long and I always thought it was a shame they didn't leave at the top of their games. What they did is something I said I wouldn't do."

Steele said he would have retired by the age of 60, no matter what.

"It was coming sooner or later," he said. "I just didn't know when, or how or where until the other night."

He added that his decision was not prompted by a formal prefight protest submitted by Corrales. The NSAC denied the protest after weighing the option of removing Steele from the fight on the premise that he was too close to Mayweather.

In London today, it was formally announced that Prince Naseem Hamed, 35-0, would meet Marco Antonio Barrera, 51-3, in a featherweight fight April 7 at the MGM. It will be Hamed's fifth fight in the U.S. but first in Las Vegas.

Also, Hasim Rahman, 33-2, has been tabbed as the opponent for heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, 38-1-1, for an April 21 fight that is likely to land in Las Vegas.

And David Tua, 37-2, who lost to Lewis in November, will restart his career by facing Danell Nicholson, 39-3, March 24 at a site still to be determined.