Tag: Larry Hazzard

Former referee Eddie Cotton dies at 72 from coronavirus

Retired referee Eddie Cotton was hospitalized for more than a week before succumbing to complications related to the coronavirus Friday.

Retired referee and judge Eddie Cotton, who worked many world championship fights, died Friday from the coronavirus, according to multiple reports. He was 72.

Cotton was hospitalized for more than a week before succumbing to complications related to the virus.

The Paterson, New Jersey native reportedly began working as a professional boxing official in 1992 while serving as a member of the Paterson  City Council. He worked dozens of title fights between then and his retirement in 2014, including the 2002 heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson in Memphis, Tennessee.

“Paterson has lost a legend,” Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh told the Paterson Times on Friday. “Ed Cotton was an accomplished boxing referee, a respected community leader and a cherished friend.”

Cotton also was a member of the International Boxing Federation Board of Directors. The IBF was one of the outlets that announced his death.

“I gave him his license as a professional referee,” Larry Hazzard, the commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board since 1985 who also has worked with the IBF, told ESPN. “I was his mentor. I thought he was one of the greatest referees who ever did it.”

Hazzard appointed Cotton to referee the Lewis-Tyson fight.

“I specifically selected Eddie to be the referee in that fight because I knew this was the type of fight you needed a referee like Eddie Cotton to officiate, and he did an excellent job,” Hazzard said. “He was a very friendly guy, very outgoing, very honest, greeted everyone with a smile and a kind word. It’s a great loss to humanity.”

Cotton also was the referee who disqualified Andrew Golota for repeated low blows in his second fight with Riddick Bowe in 1996.