Ron
Lipton
The
role of the referee in any sport is to function as the neutral arbiter of the
rules and regulations of the relevant game that they are overseeing. Be it at the
amateur or professional level, the rule of thumb is that they remain firmly in
the background of the action being played out while keeping control of events
which unfold in the demarcated field of play.
This
line of thinking applies also to the world of professional boxing. Most, if not
all, would subscribe to the point of view that managers, trainers, cornermen
and hangers on, while servicing the physical and psychological needs of the
fighter, should never deign to hold themselves out as equals to the boxers in
so far as which party is the centrepiece of the show.
This
is also certainly the case for those who state athletic commissions or boards
of control appoint to officiate at the contests which they sanction; this
notwithstanding the high level of visibility a referee may potentially command within
the relatively small confines of the squared ring.
It
is a line of thinking that still holds true despite the theatrical aspects
which, over the course of time, have become attached to the fight game. Fighters
embark on a ring trek often decked out in fineries to the accompaniment of raucous
music and the not too infrequent displays of pyrotechnical prowess.
But
of course, the element of celebrity manages to extend to other ‘stage’ actors. The
ring announcer Michael Buffer’s pre-fight exhortation to “Let’s get ready to
rumble” has achieved for Buffer an iconic status as well as the privilege of
registering the phrase as a trademark which has bequeathed him a fortune.
Such
is not expected to be the case with those charged with the duty of ensuring
fair play and the safety of fighters in the ring.
Yet,
it has in recent times become almost de rigueur
for referees ranging from the highly competent to the mediocre to invent
signature phrases in an attempt to forge a kind of a ring personality.
Mills
Lane, the Nevada-based ex-marine and judge, solidified his reputation for
adopting a no nonsense approach to officiating by ending his ring instructions
with the phrase “Let’s get it on!”
Whether
Lane’s now famous call to arms provided the spark which has inspired a
multitude of referees to adopt a rash of sometimes tediously manufactured
phrases remains a bone of contention.
But
there is a case to proffer that in contemporary times, talent and hard work at
whatever vocation or occupation being pursued is not enough.
One
needs to operate within a working environment with a personalised brand.
If
the aura of a laboured attempt at self-promotion was found in the catchphrase “I’m
fair but I’m firm”, coined by Joe Cortez, as well as in the rhyming approach
favoured in Kenny Bayless’s “What I say, you must obey”, there are nonetheless
exemplars provided by a number of referees whose pre-fight instructions convey
the appropriate level of detachment and sense of dedicated professionalism required
of the third man in the ring.
Since
the 1990s, Ron Lipton’s sober instructions in the centre of the ring to the
likes of Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones and Oscar De La Hoya testify to the
belief that a referee can calibrate his words in a personally distinctive, yet
professional manner, which need not traverse the boundaries of decorum and
enter into the realm of the hyperbole and doggerel suggestive of a flea circus
announcer:
I
have given you my instructions. I remind you now, obey my commands. Respect
each other and let’s keep this strictly professional
For
around 23 years, Lipton’s advice to the fighters to maintain their actions and
attitudes in the ring on a “strictly professional” footing remained to the best
of his knowledge a unique expression among those in the fraternity of referees.
When
while taking charge of the Luis Collazo-Victor Ortiz bout on January 30th
of this year the referee Benjy Esteves used the words “Let’s keep it strictly
professional”, some fight fans were stirred to comment on what appeared to be
the appropriation of a fellow referee’s turn of words.
Happenstance
perhaps? Well, not really. On May 8th of 2014, on a bill at New
York’s Turning Stone Casino, similar instructions, albeit modified, were issued
to the contestants by Esteves.
Lipton
was inundated with a barrage of e-mails from fight aficionados who again had
been struck by the same referee issuing mid-ring instructions which included
Lipton’s enduring phrase of keeping things professional.
While
Lipton contented himself by stating that he felt that it was “an honest
mistake”, some fans reacted with outrage even asserting that his colleague’s
actions had amounted to a brazen form of plagiarism.
Lipton,
who had worked with Esteves at Resorts World Casino in Queens on 20th
December 2013, played this down by insisting that Esteves was a friend and that
he considered it to be a compliment.
It
was Charles Caleb, a 19th Century-era English writer and cleric, who
issued the famous saying that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
The addendum offered by George Bernard Shaw that imitation was not merely
flattery but in fact the “sincerest form of learning”, appears to be apt in the
circumstances of a younger man purloining the words of an older and vastly more
experienced colleague.
Polite
rationales aside, if the aforementioned development by which professional
referees through the words they contrive during their mid-ring instructions is widely accepted as a legitimate tool aimed at carving out their distinctive professional
identities, then what Esteves has done can be persuasively argued to have
breached the standards of professional etiquette.
It
is conduct which certainly amounts to a species of plagiarism for which he
should take responsibility by issuing an apology and refraining from using the
words which have become associated with Ron Lipton.
A
sense of basic decency demands that he do no less.
(c)
Adeyinka Makinde (2014)
Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England. He is the author of Jersey Boy: The Life and Mob Slaying of
Frankie DePaula and Dick Tiger: The
Life and Times of a Boxing Immortal.