Larry Hazzard Sr. (born 7 December 1944) is a former amateur boxer, boxing referee, athletic control board commissioner, teacher and actor.
That year, Hazzard became a teacher, working at Newark Arts High School as a physical education and health instructor and as girl's head track coach.
Hazzard's first professional bout as a referee took place on 13 June 1978 and was between Mike Quarry and Kevin Smith, at Ice World, in Totowa, New Jersey.
[8] Three days later, on 13 March 1979, Hazzard refereed his first championship bout, when future Larry Holmes WBC world heavyweight championship challenger Scott Frank boxed Guy Casale for the New Jersey state heavyweight title at Ice World in Totowa, with Frank winning by ninth-round technical knockout.
[16] On 16 September 1982, Hazzard refereed a fight for the ESPN Welterweight championship between Robert Sawyer and Dick Eklund at the Sands Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City.
[17] Hazzard continued refereeing fights, including bouts involving Michael Spinks, Gene Hatcher, Leon Spinks, Azumah Nelson, Bobby Czyz, Jeff Lampkin, a fight between future world heavyweight champions Gerrie Coetzee and Pinklon Thomas (a ten-rounds draw or tie, on 22 January 1983 at the Sands Hotel and Casino)[18] and a fight between perennial heavyweight contenders Mitch Green and Jumbo Cummings (on 16 February 1983 at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford) won by Green by ten-rounds unanimous decision,[19] before receiving what was arguably the largest assignment of his career as a boxing referee: On March 18, 1983, Hazzard refereed the Michael Spinks vs. Dwight Muhammad Qawi world light-heavyweight championship unification bout, held at the Convention Center in Atlantic City,[20] in an HBO Boxing televised contest between two fellow future International Boxing Hall of Fame members.
In the end, Spinks won a somewhat close but unanimous 15-rounds decision to retain his WBA world light-heavyweight title and unify it with the WBC one previously held by Qawi.
[20] Exactly one month and six days after the Spinks versus Qawi match, Hazzard again refereed a bout featuring Alexis Arguello; this time, the Nicaraguan faced Trinitarian boxer and former WBA world lightweight champion Claude Noel on 24 April 1983 at the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
[25] Thirteen days later, Hazzard refereed the ten-rounds fight between yet another future International Boxing Hall of Fame member, WBA world bantamweight champion Jeff Chandler and Oscar Muniz of Los Angeles, California.
Not many experts or fans gave Muniz much of a chance, but he won the fight, beating Chandler by a ten-rounds split decision and causing one of 1983's biggest upsets in professional boxing.
[29] Another fight of major significance in the sport of professional boxing's history which Hazzard refereed took place on 28 March 1984 at the Harrah's Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, between American Ernie Singletary and Scottish Murray Sutherland for the vacant IBF's world super-middleweight championship.
On Sunday, 15 April 1984, Hazzard refereed the second IBF world lightweight championship contest, between American champion Charlie Brown and his Puerto Rican-American challenger, Harry Arroyo of Youngstown, Ohio.
[32] One month and 4 days after Brown-Arroyo, Hazzard was in a Venezuelan ring overseeing the WBA world junior-flyweight championship bout between Lupe Madera and Francisco Quiroz of the Dominican Republic, on 19 May at Maracaibo.
[33] On June 1, 1985, Hazzard officiated over a fight that took place at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, France, between IBF world junior-middleweight champion Carlos Santos of Puerto Rico and local challenger Louis Acaries.
[40] The first world-title fight he scored as a judge involved Puerto Rico's future International Boxing Hall of Fame member, Wilfredo Gomez, defending his WBC world super-bantamweight title against Mexico's Juan "Kid" Meza on 27 March 1982 at the Playboy Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
[41] Other important fights that Hazzard judged included the 20 May 1983, rematch between WBA world heavyweight champion Michael Dokes and challenger, former world champion Mike Weaver at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, which was scored a draw (tie) after fifteen rounds (Hazzard scored it a 144-144 tie),[42] and Marvin Camel versus Roddy MacDonald on December 13, 1983 at the Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax, Canada, in what constituted the first ever IBF world cruiserweight championship contest, won by Camel by fifth-round technical knockout,[43] From 1985 to 1990, Hazzard stopped judging fights, in order to concentrate on his commissioner's duties.
[46] He oversaw the commission at a time where there was a lot of boxing activity going on in New Jersey, including, for example, the Mike Tyson versus Michael Spinks contest in June, 1988, the Hector Camacho-Vinnie Pazienza fight of February, 1990 and others.
That day, Starling and Molinares were involved in a rather close bout until right near the end of round six, when the two combatants threw consecutive, over-looping right hands during a trade.