THIS! I have always brought that up. Taylor saying Steele never asked him anything, whhen he obviously did. Taylor was out after that right hand that floored him.
It was a close fight. I watched it when it happened in a bar full of Taylor supporters, and could not hear the HBO commentary. I thought that the knockdown would win the fight for Chavez; of course, the fight was then stopped. If I remember correctly many of the boxing magazines thought that the real travesty of the night was the judge that had Taylor up by 8, that the fight was much closer. In amateur boxing you count punches, and a slapping hook equals a flush, leveraged shot that does damage. In professional boxing, the effect of punches must be considered, especially when one guy is 'landing' a lot of punches that glance off a shoulder or a glove first.
Taylor outlanded Chavez nearly 3-1 and had soundly outworked him. He deserved to be up. Effective aggression, landing punches, looked absolutely in command. The wheels started to come off later, and that is what made the fight sort of close. Taylor won atleast 7 rounds, though, and probably should have won 8.
regardless of the validity of your statement... Please PLEASE tell me you don't agree with OP that Chavez was winning that fight on your card.
Even amateurs are taught that when you go down, get up, put your hands up and say, 'I'm okay.' Taylor did neither, despite his claims otherwise. Steele looked right at him and asked, "Are you okay?" and Taylor did not respond. End of story. Stoppage was justifiable at that point. It is a fighter's duty to prove to and convince the referee that they are ready and able to continue. As for the scoring, of course Taylor was ahead. That said, Chavez was landing very hard crisp digging shots throughout the fight, and especially in the last four rounds. Sure Taylor was outlanding him 3 to 1 but Chavez's one was very damaging in the long term, as he showed throughout his career. But up until the 12th, Taylor took it all like a champ and was rocking Chavez's head aplenty with consistent blazing combinations the likes of which I don't think I have ever seen since.
Not to mention, Taylor was thoroughly finished. How badly a fighter is beaten factors into a referee's decision. If you are badly effed up, the standard to be allowed to continue is higher. Any fighter who doesn't know this is fooling themselves.
So then, if Taylor won 7 probably 8 rounds and looked to be "absolutely in command", then who beat him up so bad? George Benton? Duva? How did he get to be "absolutely in command" and "thoroughly finished" at the same time? I haven't watched the fight in years, but I have watched it in slow motion. That viewing left me impressed with the courage of Taylor because he got beat up pretty tough. He landed a lot of flashy blows but he absorbed the real damaging professional punches.
I don't think Steele had much choice. He asked him how he was after the 8 count more than once giving him extra seconds and he didn't respond. Imagine if he'd let him go on and Chavez did land another bomb and damaged him, Steele would of been the one who had to live with it.
Damage isn't the only scoring criteria. Chavez did aggravated damage, which he stepped up tremendously in the back half of the fight. He was absolutely swamped by Taylor moving his hands early.
Steele had no issues letting stuff like Hearns vs Barkley and Arbachakov vs Kittikassem go on when both were totally out of it and could have been seriously hurt.He was a safe ref for the big promoter's meal ticket, or hometown boy. had this fight been reversed and that was Chavez in the corner only having to last the distance to win, no way he stops it imo. I think the stoppage can be easily justified, but have little doubt there was corruption and favouritism at work there.