Mitch Halpern

Mitchell Howard Halpern (July 14, 1967 – August 20, 2000) was an American boxing referee who officiated some of the sport's biggest matches.

Early career Halpern began his career in March 1991 and went on to referee 87 championship fights and hundreds of non-title fights around the world. Mitch also volunteered for a foundation that grants wishes for children that are suffering with life-threatening medical conditions.

Halpern was trained and mentored by veteran boxing referee Richard Steele. "I taught him everything I knew," said Steele. "He took what I had taught him, and with his great natural ability, made himself a great referee."

Steele said that Halpern approached him one night after Steele had just finished refereeing a fight and told him that he wanted to be a referee. Steele recounted, "I have had numerous people come to me and say that. I always tell them, 'I will meet you at the gym Monday.' He 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."

Halpern was scheduled to referee Holyfield–Tyson II, what would come to be known as the infamous "Bite Fight", but Tyson's co-manager, John Horne vehemently opposed. Officially, Tyson's camp did not cite any specific reason to The Nevada State Athletic Commission, only arguing that they wanted a fresh slate. Halpern commented at the time, "The day a fighter can dictate what happens in a fight, I'm gone, because then I don't have any authority anyway."

The NSAC stood firm with a 4–1 vote and were not willing to remove Halpern (whom one sports writer referred to as "the unwilling centerpiece of a manufactured controversy"). The day before the fight was to occur, Halpern voluntarily withdrew. In an interview with sports reporter Ron Futrell, Halpern explained his reasoning: "As an official, you don't ever want to be the center of attention, and that's what was happening. These are two great fighters, this is a big, big fight, and I didn't want to take away from that..." Mills Lane was subsequently chosen to be the referee.

A little over 4 months later on November 8, 1997, Halpern refereed the rematch between Evander Holyfield and Michael Moorer in which Moorer lost by TKO in the 8th round. Holyfield retained his WBA title, while gaining the IBF Heavyweight belt.

Other bouts Halpern refereed the match between Gabriel Ruelas and Jimmy Garcia for the WBC super featherweight title on May 6, 1995. Ruelas won the fight by TKO, but the match is mostly remembered because Garcia died in a hospital two weeks later from brain damage sustained in the fight.

In a New York Times article, Ruelas explained that even when he was pounding Garcia with punches, Garcia maintained a composure to not act hurt, and the fight continued on for eleven rounds, with Garcia's father prodding him on in his corner. The doctor and Halpern inspected Garcia in the corner after the 10th round and found him coherent enough to continue, but the fight was stopped by Halpern in the next round. Although Garcia walked back to his corner, minutes later he collapsed and had to be taken from the ring on a stretcher.

It is not clear what effect Garcia's death had upon Halpern. Physician-at-ringside, Edwin "Flip" Homansky, who often worked title matches that Halpern refereed, said "Mitch transcended the sport in that he truly cared about the fighters."

Halpern was the referee for several notable bouts in 1999: the Lennox Lewis–Evander Holyfield rematch at the Thomas & Mack Center in which Lennox was the winner by unanimous decision; the Oscar De La Hoya–Félix Trinidad welterweight championship fight at Mandalay Bay in which Trinidad won by majority decision (billed as the Fight of the Millennium, the fight set a pay-per-view record for a non-heavyweight fight); also in 1999, Halpern officiated the De La Hoya–Ike Quartey fight in which De La Hoya won by split decision.

Halpern was also referee for the first of three meetings between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.

Film Halpern played a referee in the 1999 film, Play it to the Bone.

Reputation Before his untimely death in 2000, Mitch Halpern was considered "a rising star" in the sport. — which appeared to be a common sentiment in the industry. Dr. Elias Ghanem, who was chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission when Halpern died, characterized him as "a real brave referee."

Death Halpern died on August 20, 2000, in his south Las Vegas home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 33 years old. Detectives at the scene did not give details, except to say that there were two other people in the house at the time. Halpern had been engaged to be married when he died. Many boxing insiders upon hearing of Halpern's death expressed shock because Halpern had a reputation for being collected and not impulsive. For instance, boxing promoter and president of Top Rank, Bob Arum, said that he was "flabbergasted": "I don't think he had an enemy. He was such a stable, rational personality — cool under pressure, unflappable; adding, "A lot of people, myself included, felt he was the best around. Nobody ever questioned his integrity."