Famed boxing ref Eddie Cotton dies of COVID-19

By David Finger

Fightnews.com® is sad to report the passing of one of boxing’s most esteemed referees: Eddie Cotton of New Jersey. Cotton died on the morning of April 17th of COVID-19 after having been hospitalized for over a week. Cotton was highly regarded in the boxing community having refereed hundreds of high profile fights since the early 1990s. He is remembered as the third man in the ring for the infamous Riddick Bowe-Andrew Golata rematch in December of 1996, the final fight of George Foreman in November of 1997 (when Foreman lost a controversial decision to Shannon Briggs), the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson fight in June of 2002, as well as world title fights involving Wladimir Klitschko, Gennady Golovkin, and Bernard Hopkins among others.

“Boxing has lost another good man to #COVID_19.” Lou Dibella tweeted about the passing of Eddie Cotton. “One of the most well known and respected referees in the world, Eddie Cotton was also one of the nicest people in our sport.”

It was a sentiment shared amongst many in the sport of boxing.

“He was a great guy,” WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel said of Cotton, a regular attendee of the WBO Annual Convention and a frequent golf partner of Valcarcel during the annual convention. “He was a good referee and a great guy. He was my golf partner for a long time. We had a special relationship and a great friendship.”

Cotton was also a highly regarded community leader in Paterson, New Jersey. Cotton had served as the first black president of the Paterson City Council and also was the first black public works director in Paterson.

“Paterson has lost a legend,” Mayor Andre Sayegh was quoted as saying to the Paterson Times. “Ed Cotton was an accomplished boxing referee, a respected community leader, and a cherished friend.”

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  • Very sad to hear this news. Cotton always did an exceptional job as a referee. It’s very surreal to think thousands of people would still be alive now had COVID-19 not broke thru the barriers to infect humans.

    • Crap. I was just watching the full Bowe-Golatta2 card and was thinking how young Eddie Cotton looked there. This is sad.

  • Sad news. Was he still active as a referee? As far as I knew, he was. I remember he was chosen to ref the Tyson-Lennox Lewis fight because they wanted someone who was big enough to separate them if he had to. He was one of the good guys in the sport!

    • No he was not an active Referee. He was a supervisor for the IBF for the last few years

  • I think is time to stop asinine comments about this disease. Its a real threat that we don’t know how it will develop when a person is infected.

  • Sorry to hear of Eddie’s passing, what the article doesn’t tell you is he was a heck of lightheavy in his time fought some of the big names & always gave his best. I’m sorry for the Cotton Families loss….

  • RIP Eddie Cotton. What a figure in boxing. Sad, just a couple of months ago he was looking so healthy. Go to YouTube and enter qtSj6n1Rzzk

  • How sad. RIP Eddie Cotton. You were in on some great fights.

    Where are those clowns on here saying covid isn’t real and it’s just the elites trying to rule the world? Lost your volume I see. Good.

    • They are busy trying to please their big gut Messiah by protesting stay at home orders and promoting false news releases that downplay the virus’ effect.

  • Sad to hear. He was a good boxer but the jury is out on whether he was a great referee. I remember he did everything against Lewis in the ring against Tyson. There was a strong suggestion that something was afoot to make an excuse for Tyson to win. This was not lost on Emmanuel Steward.

    • No use bringing this up now. He’s not around to defend himself. Lets give the benefit of the doubt, where we can, to the people passed on.

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