JAMAICA Boxing Board General Secretary Leroy Brown has paid tribute to the late Steve Smoger, a former international boxing referee and judge, describing him as “a truly nice guy”.

Smoger, who died on Monday after a long period of illness, was 72.

Smoger played a role in local boxing, having officiated numerous matches on the island including two finals in the Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum Contender series. One of those bouts was the 2018 final between Richard “Frog” Holmes and Canada’s Ricardo “Magic Man” Salas.

In that bout, which Brown described as one of the very best in the ‘Contender’ series, Smoger used his experience and discretion to continue the contest after Holmes was knocked down twice. That decision proved a good one as Holmes rallied back to take the contest to the judges’ decision through some hard hitting of his own, which scored him some valuable points and made the contest closer than the opening rounds had suggested it would have been.

“Steve knew when to stop a fight,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer. “That was clear with the Holmes-Salas final. Any other referee would’ve stopped that fight by around the third or the fourth round but he kept very close to them. He looked at Holmes and saw that even though he went down, he still had stuff left in him — and he made that fight go on.”

Brown recalls how Smoger would speak with boxers before fights and establish his presence.

“Smoger was a very good ref [referee] and a very patient ref,” he said. “One of the things I liked about him was how he managed fights. Before he came to Jamaica I’d worked a few title fights with him in New York and New Jersey. He was a nice person to deal with and for him, it was a hobby. Boxing for him was a love affair and he mixed it with his profession in law.”

Brown describes Smoger as being a “fun person”.

“We would go out and have a few drinks and he was a great storyteller also,” he said. “He spoke about boxing, he knew boxing, but it wasn’t the only thing he would talk about; he was quite a jokester. One of the nice things about good jokesters is that they keep a straight face, and that was Steve Smoger.”

The other fight Smoger officiated was the 2017 final between Sakima “Mr Smooth” Mullings and Team Canada’s Phil Rose.

Mullings says the world has lost a genuine human being in Smoger’s passing.

“Before I met him I watched him referee countless world championship fights from my living room,” Mullings told the Observer. “What I most respected about him was his ethical approach to boxing and his passion for the sport. I was honoured to have him referee one of my championship fights and to have received the ‘Smoger Seal of Approval’ afterward.”

Mullings is referring to Smoger’s praise for him after he defeated Rose, in which the late referee described him as a smart boxer.

“I’ve been in with the best in the world,” Smoger said after the fight. “This kid can fight. He’s smart, has very, very good body work and a lot of power.”

Smoger officiated a number of notable fights including James Toney versus Jamaica’s Mike McCallum, Bernard Hopkins versus Felix Trinidad, Kelly Pavlik versus Jermain Taylor, and Andre Ward versus Carl Froch in his over-200 world title fights.

Smoger, a former attorney-at-law and attorney general, was also an inductee in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the United States.

— Rachid Parchment