Steele began referring fights in the 1970s up until 2007, and he went on to referee in 167 world title fights around the world. His first major fight was the 1977 slugfest between unbeaten Mexican champions Carlos Zarate and Alfonso Zamora. Among his other notable fights were Aaron Pryor's knock out of Alexis Argüello in their ten rounds in their rematch and Mike Tyson's defeat of Donovan Ruddock in 1991, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns' 1985 middleweight championship bout, Hagler's 1987 loss to Sugar Ray Leonard, and the first of two fights between Julio César Chávez and Meldrick Taylor, which he stopped with 2 seconds remaining of the final round.