my score card for taylor vs chavez

One pint blood swallowed.
One orbital bone cracked.
Two kidneys wrecked.
One week in the hospital.

Add those points up.

 

And this is why, despite being a mile behind on the scorecards, the stoppage is just.

Chavez BEAT Taylor. He defeated him. He just didn't outpoint him.

 

well said. all those factors add up to a stoppage loss for taylor, but do not mean a points win for chavez.

i've flip flopped over the years on the stoppage...but the one clear fact about that fight is that taylor was winning comfortably going into the 12th

 

Had it 7-4 for Meldrick going into the 12th.

 

There's a guy on here called John Garfield (not his real name) who was ringside for the fight. He was a boxing writer, he explained to me that he thought Taylor was a dead man walking in the last round. One more punch after he got up could have been fatal. For all the people that say he should have been allowed to continue, no, no way. He was looking over Steele's shoulder, not answering back 'You okay Taylor, you okay Taylor?'. Chavez did enough in the fight, Taylor was eating Chavez's punches in the rounds before, and as was stated earlier, a lot of Taylors punches were on the gloves. Chavez stuck Taylor on his back-end at just the right time.
:good

 

fair post and John Garfield is pure quality:good

 

I was also at the fight & that right hand Chavez detonated onto Taylors jaw about 30 seconds before the knockdown could be heard all around the ballroom like someone had just cracked a whip over someones back.

THHHWACK!!! yer heard it above the screams of all the mexicans! Unbelievable night:happy

Watching it live it is obviously different than on TV, loads of shoe-shining from Meldrick juxtaposed with Col Bob Sheridan ejaculating at anything Taylor did regardless of effect! Never seen Col Bob so gushy & blind up until the Mayweather/Cotto fight

 

Yes. That right hand your talking about had Taylor actually wobbling into that corner where he eventually got nailed again. He lost total control of his legs.

 

I had it 8-2-1, but it could just as easily be 8-3 or 7-4, since Chavez has a very good argument for winning the 9th round.

Heart alone kept Meldrick up after that 1-2 with 30 seconds left. And really, you can go back to the entire left minute or so, Taylor took a ton of very hard left hooks and straight rights during that minute.

As for the stoppage, it's an odd one, but Meldrick was clearly out on his feet and in la-la land. After the fight, when Merchant tried to interview him, Taylor swore up and down that Steele stopped the fight without a count or asking Taylor if he was ok, which should say everything about what kind state Taylor was in.

 

Well another big big factor in the tactics of Lou Duva in that 12th round was his recent history in a cross promoted fight with DKP. He could not trust the scorecards and the way the bout should have been scored and simply could not tell Meldrick to take the final round off because the fight was his. He had to go out and win everything to get that decision and really did not have the option available of coasting.

But it is debatable if Taylor's game was good enough to play defense only and survive anyway. I don't think backpedalling thwarts the Chavez steamrolling coming forward attack trying to pull it out in the last round. That defense will still see him hit. But he only had 3 minutes to kill and did not have to flurry or try hitting the guy on his way in.





But at the end of the day, the fight was such a physical toll on Meldrick that his career was on the way down quick.

 

Judge Chuck Giampa had Chavez ahead at the end which I thought, (and still do) was insulting. I don't think Chavez was winning rounds throughout the fight, but he was laying the groundwork down that led to the collapse at the end. In scoring, I thought maybe he won two rounds going into the last round, but it's true he was landing the more punishing shots that was hurting Taylor badly. Still, in my opinion, I can't give a fighter a round simply because he landed the harder punches. A lot of people view fights that way but I don't.

 

the face damage was very unnatural looking to taylor who was hitting chavez with the same shots and at greater frequency but not affecting the face of chavez that same way. it makes me strongly think chavez had done something with his gloves. i just cant think of any fight other than cotto/margarito where two guys hit each other with the same kind of shots but only one of them ends up with a face that looks like its just falling apart. maybe only resto and collins beyond those two

 

must not have been as hard a punch as you say as meldricks rump never even hit the canvas and he was up at the count of 4. in all other contexts we would call that a flash knock down

 

Blacktop, the concensus including mine is 7-4 or 8-3 Taylor going into the 12th. I had to stretch it abit to get the 7-4.