[3] On May 26, 1969, Perez was the referee for the Dick Tiger versus Nino Benvenuti ten round non-title affair at the Madison Square Garden.
The first world championship bout refereed by Perez was the Joe Frazier versus Jimmy Ellis main attraction on Monday, February 16, 1970.
Many of these bouts included world champions and top rated boxers such as Angel Espada, Harold Weston, Enrique Pinder, Davey Vasquez, the Bobby Cassidy-Tom Bethea match, the Jerry Quarry versus Randy Neumann fight, Jorge Ahumada against Ray Anderson and Vito Antuofermo facing Danny McAloon.
[10] Perez's next assignment also became a very prominent fight in boxing history when, on March 24, 1975, Ali defended the world Heavyweight title versus Chuck Wepner.
[14] Perez was the referee for Carlos Monzon's only fight as a professional in the United States, when he stopped Tony Licata in ten rounds to retain the world Middleweight title at the Madison Square Garden, on June 30, 1975.
[16] Perez visited Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, at a time when professional boxing fights were allowed in American prison systems, to oversee the ten round bout between James Scott and Alvaro Lopez, Saturday, December 1 of 1979, a match in which Perez also served as a voting judge.
Scott, who was an inmate at the same jail at that time, won a ten-round unanimous decision, Perez scoring the fight 8 rounds to 2.
[17] On May 11, 1981, Perez was given referee duties for the HBO Boxing televised event between Heavyweights Gerry Cooney and the former WBC world champion, Hall of Fame member Ken Norton.
[18] The fight catapulted Cooney into his showdown with Larry Holmes for the WBC world title and culminated Norton's career.
This was a rematch and Perez refereed it; on Saturday, July 25, 1981, at the Resorts International in Atlantic City, New Jersey Chandler retained the title stopping Solis in seven rounds.
The next major match refereed by Perez pitted an already legendary boxer and (later) Hall of Famer (Arguello) defending his third divisional world title, the WBC Lightweight one, against a future legend, world champion and Hall of Famer himself, Ray Mancini, at Bally's Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, October 3, 1981.
Sanchez retained the crown by a fifteenth-round technical knockout,[23] then died tragically 21 days later, killed in a car crash near Mexico City.
Almost a year after Sanchez-Nelson, Perez was involved in another very controversial fight, although this time no one could blame him for the controversy that arose after the match; On June 16, 1983, in the program headlined by the Davey Moore versus Roberto Durán WBA world Junior Middleweight championship bout, Perez got to referee and judge a Junior Middleweight encounter between 14 wins, no losses or draws Billy Collins, Jr. and 20 wins, 8 losses and 2 draws Luis Resto.
[24] Then, on September 10, 1983, Perez was the referee for the Larry Holmes versus Scott Frank WBC world Heavyweight title bout held at the Harrah's Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
[26] On September 23, 1983, Perez participated in another historic fight, when Michael Dokes defended his WBA world Heavyweight title against Gerrie Coetzee.
Perez refereed the March 30, 1984, world Middleweight title fight between champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler and his Argentine challenger, Juan "The Hammer" Roldan at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In a situation somewhat similar to the Ali-Wepner fight he'd refereed years before, Hagler went down seconds after the first round had begun as he slipped followed by a right hand from Roldan that grazed the champion's head.
[28] Perez was the referee on October 19, 1984, for the match fought for the vacant WBA's world Junior Middleweight title which had been vacated by Durán, between Ireland's Sean Mannion and Jamaica's Mike McCallum.
[29] Tony Perez was given the responsibility of officiating the WBC world Junior Lightweight title bout between champion Julio César Chávez of Mexico and challenger Refugio Rojas as part of the Héctor Camacho vs. Edwin Rosario fight's undercard, June 13, 1986, at the Madison Square Garden.
[30] Only six weeks later, Perez again shared a ring with the Mexican legend when Chavez defended his world title against former and future world champion Rocky Lockridge, whom the future Hall of Famer from Mexico beat by a somewhat controversial, twelve round majority decision with Perez as referee on Sunday, August 3, 1986, at the Stade Louis II in Fontvieille, Monaco.
[31] On Saturday, March 26, 1988, Perez refereed the Fidel Bassa-Dave McAuley rematch for Colombian Bassa's WBA world Flyweight championship in a battle that had generated much interest both in Ireland and internationally.
Damiani won the contest by third-round knockout (despite this, most outside the WBO continued recognizing Mike Tyson as "undisputed" champion in the division).
The South Korean fighter rose but was downed again immediately afterwards, with Perez halting the fight with 24 seconds to go, giving the defending world champion a come from behind victory.
[33] Tony Perez was then called on to referee the pay per view match between two aging but legendary former world champions, Hector Camacho Sr. and Roberto Durán, which was held on June 22, 1996, at the Mark Etess Arena in Atlantic City.