Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor 2 Was an Underrated Fight

Yes, it was largely a case of "who had declined more since 1990?", but it was still a good fight. Taylor surpassed expectations in how he fought. He started off well, still had quick hands, and like the first fight, was outworking Chavez. But Chavez was landing the harder shots, and you could see Taylor stop whenever Chavez landed clean. His punch resistance had obviously declined.

Mills Lane was rather harsh on Taylor on taking 2 pts away for low blows (Chavez was pulling his head down on some of the low blows).

The 6th round was a very good action round, but completely changed the fight in Chavez's favor, as Taylor's legs left him after that brutal stanza.

But it was still an underrated fight with pretty good action.

Another underrated rematch is Leonard-Hearns 2. While the skill/talent level wasn't like it was in 1981, the action level was. Leonard-Hearns 2 might actually be a better action fight. Some of those mid-rounds of the 1st fight were rather slow.

 

It wasn't just his punch resistance, his work rate, reflexes, hand speed all declined horribly. There was absolutely no way his Philly style of fighting was going to be effective any longer. It wasn't a horrible fight but I don't think its underated. Well that's just me.

The point takeaways were completely justified IMO. Those lowblows were pretty bad. :yep

I do admire Chavez's warrior spirit. Guys today would have used up the whole 5 mins of rest time. The dude said 'F*** this' and resumed the ass kicking.

It was a decent action fight anyhow.

 

Chavez beat the soul out of him ..The amount of punishment he took from the first fight was another reason for his decline .

 

I believe Meldrick had already been knckdown twice by Glenwood The Real Beast Brown, lost his welterweight title to Chrisanto Espana and a Super-Welterweight contest in just four rounds to Terrible Terry Norris so the guy the same condidence in himself and in strength to hold on but he still could compete offensively with his punch and hansppeed.

 

Yeah, the Espana fight is when he really looked like he had gone from "past his best" to "shot".

It was surprising he even fought that well against Chavez in the rematch.

 

It's interesting to note that in the four years between the first and second fight Taylor fought ten times, going 8 - 2, while Chavez fought twenty three times going 22 - 1.

Both of Taylor's losses were by KO, while Chavez took his first ever loss, a split decision to Randall.

Ten fights in four years is pretty good going by modern standards, but twenty three fights in four years is just unreal.

 

Definitely. I loved the activity level of J.C. Chavez and James Toney during this period.

Toney won his first title against Michael Nunn, in May of 1991. It was his 3rd out of 6 fights in 1991. He fought 5 times in 1992, 7 times in 1993, 5 times in 1994, 6 times in 1995 and 5 times in 1996.

 

not if you fight bums that whole time.

Pernell Whitaker was the ONLY great fighter he fought (Oscar is not great - losing or getting a gift in all of his big fights) and he was exposed badly

In 100+ fights here are his best wins Haugen, Rosario, Taylor, Ramirez, and padded record Camacho. Randall is far from good and even he defeated Chavez.

he has only 5 notable wins and maybe 2-3 of them are actually elite opponents. Not impressed

good fighter but far from all-time great. fighting 100 bums and 2-3 simply good fighters does not make you great.

 

Chavez was just a complete animal . The amount of heart/determination that man had was just ridiculous .

 

Agree with you, especially on the Hearns/Leonard II. You knew Hearns wanted that fight so bad. And Leonard shook off those bombs to finish strong. Way better finish than JCCjr/Sergio because of the history between the two.

 

I would add Pryor-Arguello 2 to the list. Both fight are in part underrated because of your 'favorite' legendary nights.

 

Holy hell yes Chavez-Taylor 2 is underrated. Taylor brave as always and still had blazing speed and a magnificent jab, while Chavez under Manny Steward showed more technical brilliance than normal. He basically dropped Taylor with a check left hook and before the knockdown he was tagging Taylor with lead right hands! You don't see that coming from a brawler too many times! But yea, both on the slide, but still a great fight. Perhaps JCCs last great performance as well as Taylor's.

 

Actually I even think that the second fight was better than the first, am I alone ?

I agree that Chavez - Taylor II was a good fight, but there were significant less things at stake and both men had clearly decline, especially Taylor. The end of that bout is quite painful to watch imo.

edit: oh Leornard-Hearns II was also a superb fight, so many momentum switches

 

I think you are underrating Chavez technique, the guy was brilliant, Steward or not.

 

:deal