If Chavez-Taylor I were a 15-rounder...

I think this is the best point made here. I think that if Steele or say a ref who wanted to Taylor to finish the fight wanted to continue the match he would have more likely to let him finish a 12 rounder with 2 seconds left than to let it go into the next round where Chavez would have surely put this man down and out.

I do not think there is doubt that Chavez would have hurt this man badly if it goes one more round. Taylor was not going to do any better than he had in the earlier rounds that he won.

Let's say that Taylor in an alternative history gets up, finishes the fight, and wins on points. Then what? A rematch? Did he clearly show he was the superior to Chavez that a rematch would have not been needed? I think that they do rematch, and Chavez slows him down starts the beating earlier than round 10. That would be even more deterimental.

Steele was right...A fighters life is worth more than a win. He protected the guy who could defend himself anymore. Asking for another round with Julio Cesar Chavez would have been evil. Another punch from Chavez could have been fatal.

Taylor had/has no quit in him. He fought 18 years. He should have stopped well before that. That stoppage my be the one time somebody looked out for him in he ring when he needed it.

 

If it was a 15 rounder the fight may have had a tragic ending. Lou Duva was just ignorant enough to let Taylor out for the 13th. {Were assuming if Steele didn`t stop it}

Taylor took some serious damage that night.

 

Chavez TKO12 is the best bet.

I'm personally of the opinion that a referee should not mind the time -- if it is, in his opinion, time to stop the fight, he must do so wether there's two seconds left or two rounds. Because on a level playing field, one of the two combatants has earned a win. That's disregarding the entire health and safety issue -- one of the two fighters has stopped the other and rendered him unfit to continue under the criteria of the referee. All that's left to do is call it.

 

Had it just been one punch that would have been different. One big shot in the last round but Chavez beat him up for most of the fight. Taylor was bleeding from his mouth from the second round on. Those short inside combinations Julio was putting in there were damaging punches just because Jim Lampley didn`t see them doesn`t mean Richard Steele didn`t see them and hear them.

 

Classic:happy:good:hatldevilbeer:secret

 

Taylor would have died.

 

Taylor would have been dead. The ref had a lose-lose situation in front of him anyway. Stopping it or letting him go on and get killed? Either choice would have been controversial. If he let him, Chavez killed him and Richard would have been blamed. He stopped it and people cry about him stopping the fight?! WTF?!

 

Like the previous poster said, this is a moot point, looking back almost 25 yrs later Steel made the right move stopping the fight, I don't care if there was 2 seconds left or 100 seconds left, Taylor was done, Chavez is clearly the better fighter.
In the rematch 4 years later Chavez stopped him again, so it's pretty Obvious Julio had his number..

 

This fight always made me question Taylor's corner. I know that he was 3 minutes away from a truly career-defining win, one that would have opened all sorts of doors for him, but at the same time, he was getting the crap kicked out of him. It shortened his prime by years: he was never the same after that fight.

Even if he had won...at what cost?

 

Stop bumping inactive threads, ThinBlack, you annoying *****.