6:51PM, Jul 14, 2009
John Coyle is the new Gladiators referee for season 2. John has been a boxing referee since 1970 and for the past 26 years has been on the list of international referees, enabling him to officiate at all levels of professional boxing anywhere in the world. In doing so, he has refereed over 150 British Championships, 100 Commonwealth, 50 European and 110 World Titles. Travelling all over the globe, John has officiated in the USA, South Africa, Japan, South America, Thailand and virtually every country in Europe.
The formidable ref has had the privilege of sharing the ring with many great fighters, including: Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Nigel Benn, Frank Bruno, Mike McCallum, Mark Breland, Kosai Galaxy, Naseem Hamed, Tommy Hearns, Chris Eubank, Julio Cesar Chavez, Michael Watson, Joe Calzaghe, Meldrick Taylor and many more.
In 1992 John was voted World Referee of the Year by the WBA and, in 2001, he was voted Top Referee by the IBO.
John is currently on the Executive Committee of The World Boxing Association and the Executive Committee of the European Boxing Association.
