Boxing referees play an important role in the ring by protecting boxers and making sure they follow the rules. If they make one bad call, it can change the course of a fighter’s career.
While a boxer’s purse is well advertised after a title fight, a boxing referee’s salary is not well known.
This article will discuss how much money boxing referees make and the different ways boxing referees get paid.
How Much Money Do Boxing Referees Make?
According to Comparably, a boxing referee can make anywhere from $10k to $250k, with an average of $44k.
However, this is a misleading figure as we expect that many boxing referee salaries are not reported and the few referees that reported salaries greater than $100k are pulling the average up.
Because of the low availability of information, we’ll give you our best estimate of how much a referee can earn, either by salary or per match.
Amateur Referees
Many amateur boxing referees do not receive pay for an event. What matters for them is gaining the time and experience necessary in order to become a professional referee.
In reality, we’d say that entry level boxing referees are losing money due to licensing requirements and opportunity cost. In many American states where boxing doesn’t have a huge presence, these referees have to travel hundreds of miles per fight in order to gain experience.
Once they reach the professional level and start to work on high profile fights, they can begin to make so much money. In this sense, an entry level referee is on the grind just like an amateur boxer.
Professional Referees
Though referees at this level get paid, official compensation depends on many factors, such as the level of the fight, state regulation, and match fees.
Since there are no official salary and compensation estimates available, we’ll give our best estimate using the number of fights in a year as a baseline.
According to BoxRec, Kenny Bayless, one of the most popular boxing officials in America, oversaw 14 fights in 2022, including:
- 4 title fights (including 2 main events)
- 10 undercard fights
- 13 Las Vegas fights (one fight in United Arab Emirates)
- 113 rounds total
If we make the low assumption that Bayless receives a base salary of $250k, a match fee of $1k per undercard fight, and a match fee of $10k per main event or title fight, we can estimate that his salary is at least $300k or ~$20k per fight.
Assuming that all rounds in a fight were completed in 3 minutes, Bayless spent 339 minutes or 5.65 hours working in the ring, giving him an average rate of ~$2.5k per round or ~$50k per hour.
Since Bayless is one of the most popular boxing officials in Nevada, which is the world hub of professional boxing, we can assume that a professional referee can make this amount or less in this location.
Note that this figure has a margin of error as we don’t include pay from promoter contracts, sponsors, or other sources.
Who Are The Highest Paid Boxing Referees?
The highest paid boxing referees of 2022 are:
- Kenny Bayless
- Tony Weeks
- Jack Reiss
Using the same variables above, we can give our best estimates for Tony Weeks and Jack Reiss’ salaries.
Kenny Bayless
At the top of the list is Kenny Bayless. With our estimates, he made at least $300k in 2022.
To the American boxing audience, he’s a familiar face. With decades of experience, he has resided over many boxing fights in Nevada and around the world (recently in Japan, Mayweather Jr. vs Asakura). He has refereed notable boxing matches including:
- Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
- Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez
Tony Weeks
Tony Weeks is another top-paid boxing referee. With our estimates, Weeks’ pay was $300k in 2022.
Weeks is another familiar face to Las Vegas audiences. If you haven’t seen him in a PPV fight, you may have seen him in the boxing movies Southpaw and Creed III. His notable appearances include:
- Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Miguel Cotto
Manny Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley Jr.
Jack Reiss
Jack Reiss is another world-class referee on the professional circuit. Using our estimates above, Reiss’ pay was $300k in 2022. His notable bouts include:
- Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder
- Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa
How Do Boxing Referees Get Paid?
Boxing referees get paid a base salary set by their state commission plus predetermined match fees per fight.
What most people are used to seeing is the huge Pay-Per-View event in Las Vegas. Compared to a seasonal professional sport such as basketball which can have 100 games in a year, a big boxing fight is irregular.
Boxing referees at this level can travel around the world for a fight or they can add a lower-level match to their schedule. For high profile fights, you’ll see a boxing referee working the title fight and an undercard match on the same night.
Along with the salaries and fight fees, additional pay can come from promoter contracts, sponsorships, and even movie appearances.
Conclusion
While superstar boxers receive the bulk of a fight’s purse, boxing referees can receive great salaries as well.
A boxing referee has a difficult job: allowing one fighter to knockout the other while keeping their health in mind and making sure the boxers follow the rules.
If you’re thinking of becoming a professional boxing referee, keep in mind that these officials trained for years to make it to the main event stage. Like boxers, referees have to be dedicated and skilled to earn their salaries.
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