OK. This is getting bizarre. First Mitch Halpern kills himself, a Las Vegas professional boxing referee. Now Toby Gibson, another nevada local referee takes himself out. What are the odds? I think my wife just read this and submitted an application to the NSAC for me to apply for a referee job!!!!! Condolences to the family. This is really scary.
Being a boxing ref in Nevada hazardous to health
- Thread starter frank s.
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First Mitch, now Toby, but, going back a bit, the Las Vegas referee Richard Green committed suicide in 1983. The story goes that Green, a sensitive man, couldn't get over being the third man in the ring in the fight that saw Duk Koo Kim die after being stopped by Ray Mancini six months earlier.
Life is strange and too often it can be sad. Toby, of course, was just starting to get some of the bigger fights, including world title assignments in Japan and Mexico. I was at the ringside at the MGM Grand on Saturday and I never dreamed that when I saw Toby refereeing the Hatton-Tackie fight that this would be the last time I would see him. Very sad news indeed.
Life is strange and too often it can be sad. Toby, of course, was just starting to get some of the bigger fights, including world title assignments in Japan and Mexico. I was at the ringside at the MGM Grand on Saturday and I never dreamed that when I saw Toby refereeing the Hatton-Tackie fight that this would be the last time I would see him. Very sad news indeed.
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i`d guess that this sad coincidence has more to do with vegas than the profession.....
many things can happen in vegas that can ruin a man.....make him lose hope...
i`d hazard a guess that suicide rates in vegas are disproportionately high....
very sad...
Well, I wasn't aware of the Green situation. I was back east then. Mitch was purported to be having romantic difficulties. He was said to be despondent and in a major depression, but it's what the RJ reported, so I really don't know. What happened with Toby will be reported on surely. They say dentists have the highest suicide rate as a profession. But boxing refs? Nice to have you posting here.
- Jun 23, 2008
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Very very sad
and a creepy thing...the third known referee suicide
Living in Vegas can take its toll
Being a world class referee, I think, would be an awesome job
but also huge amounts of pressure...you are literally making decisions on fighters' lives in there...
stop a fight too early, the world hates you
stop it too late.... a fighter can suffer irreversible damages
who knows what demons he was fighting outside his profession...
and a creepy thing...the third known referee suicide
Living in Vegas can take its toll
Being a world class referee, I think, would be an awesome job
but also huge amounts of pressure...you are literally making decisions on fighters' lives in there...
stop a fight too early, the world hates you
stop it too late.... a fighter can suffer irreversible damages
who knows what demons he was fighting outside his profession...
I don't know the circumstances of Toby's private life, but you could be on to something about living in Las Vegas, Ghost.
The ESPN writer Kieran Mulvaney spent almost a year in Las Vegas researching a book, and he told me that while he was active on the fight scene he said he could see how Vegas could be a lonely place for a lot of people.
I can see this, too.
I don't know what Toby's situation was, but if a person is, for whatever reason, of a solitary disposition or simply on his/her own, Vegas probably isn't the place to be. Everywhere you look, people having fun (or seeming to be so doing), couples gazing into each other's eyes, lovers embracing, and then to go back to a lonely apartment -- or just an unsatisfactory personal life -- I don't know, it must bring everything home that bit harder.
As said, I know nothing of Toby's life but I would guess that for some people the reality of living in Vegas can be a lot different from the glittering image.
Yes, Frank, I believe that Mitch was involved in a love affair that was going badly wrong.
It seems trite in light of the Toby situation to bring up the old saying about suicide being a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but sometimes I think this is all too terribly true. Again, a very sad day.
The ESPN writer Kieran Mulvaney spent almost a year in Las Vegas researching a book, and he told me that while he was active on the fight scene he said he could see how Vegas could be a lonely place for a lot of people.
I can see this, too.
I don't know what Toby's situation was, but if a person is, for whatever reason, of a solitary disposition or simply on his/her own, Vegas probably isn't the place to be. Everywhere you look, people having fun (or seeming to be so doing), couples gazing into each other's eyes, lovers embracing, and then to go back to a lonely apartment -- or just an unsatisfactory personal life -- I don't know, it must bring everything home that bit harder.
As said, I know nothing of Toby's life but I would guess that for some people the reality of living in Vegas can be a lot different from the glittering image.
Yes, Frank, I believe that Mitch was involved in a love affair that was going badly wrong.
It seems trite in light of the Toby situation to bring up the old saying about suicide being a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but sometimes I think this is all too terribly true. Again, a very sad day.
Speaking from experience, living here, what with the transient nature of this place, there is a sense of disconnection in general. Lots of folks kind of walking on the "street of broken dreams" as it were. Las Vegas, is, after all, more a state of mind, than anything else. Be that as it may, why two referees in the past 8 years? Maybe they just reflect the per capita rate of suicide, but to us as fight fans, it jumps out at us. I don't know.
