im not gonna start the never ending arguement of was the stoppage right or wrong. But i want someone to educate me on the thoughts of many going into the fight such as their rating pfp, who was favorite and since its such and important detail to many even what each fighters purse was
Taylor was a gold medalist of maybe the best class of USA fighters. So the pedigree was in Taylor's favor. He was undefeated, as was Chavez. Chavez' opposition up to that point was in question. Most of his wins coming from fighters with terrible records and or taxi drivers as some speculated. It really was a big test for both men. Taylor was young, fast, and strong. While Chavez was powerful, tough, and a great killer instinct once his opponent was introuble. Overall, it was a pick em. In the states, Chavez was looked at similar to Calzaghe. Before he fought the likes of Lacy and Kessler. Great record, but against limited opposition. In Mexico Chavez was a boxing god at that time. Taylor in the states was highly regarded after winning the gold medal in the 84 Olympics and knocking out Mcgirt the year before to capture the belt.
It was a perfect, beautiful 50-50 matchup of 2 great fighters in their primes. Pretty much to kind of fight that you will never see today. I was drooling waiting for this one. Fight lived up to the hype, ending will never be forgotten, and we are still obsessed about it today
50-50 fight, clash of styles, clash of 2 boxing nations. I had no idea who was winning this one, I just knew it was going to be something special and it was.
Nothing could be further from the truth........ Chavez had allready been a World Champion for 6 years. Roger Mayweather Rocky Lockridge Juan Laporte Edwin Rosario Jose Luis Ramirez Those are 5 tough hombres. JC Chavez' caliber was not in question going into the Taylor fight. In fact, overall Chavez' resume stomped on Taylor's. From what I remember, it was divided in the boxing community on who would emerge victorious. Meldrick Taylor had blazing speed and Olympic glory on his resume, while Chavez after establishing himself a star as an underdog in destroying a feared lightweight puncher in Edwin Rosario, he was mowing down the lightweight division rather handily. I'd say they were both the two best fighters p4p at the time they faced eachother, a rarity in boxing. Speed and flash vs a calculated skilled destroyer.
I agree that he obviously had good wins leading up to that fight. Not looking at boxrec, he probably had 80 or so fights coming in to his fight with Taylor. I think it's safe to the majority of those wins came against D level competition. Which is what some in the media took into account, as do most when you have yet to have a loss over so many fights. Take Mayweather Jr. for instance, some people still question his resume. Yet, it's filled with probably twice as many former champs as Chavez. While he has less than half as many wins, and still an undefeated record.
Chavez did'nt have an amatuer career so as a pro he was fighting nearly once every month for the first 4 or so years of his career. This fighting "taxi cab drivers" was something made up by a Chavez opponent, Greg Haugen who btw paid dearly for it. The media took that quote and ran with it. .......but the reality is that past his 35th fight or so, nobody during Chavez era has a better resume than he does. Chavez fought everyone during his era, he ducked nobody during his prime. Chavez won his first title on his 43rd fight and most everyone he fought after that till he lost were of high level. The reality is that of a span of about 50 fights, Chavez dominated world class level opponents. This **** about fighting bums is ****! .......I dont know if Mayweather has fought more World champions or not, but it really does'nt matter in this day in age of paper champions. Mayweather has fought in an era of multiple paper champions in every weight class. A world title belt means less and less with each passing generation of fighters. I dont think anyone give a flying **** how many former paper champs Mayweather has beaten!!!
Chavez had demolished Roger Mayweather in a single rd, then made him quit in the tenth for the rematch at a higher weight. The stoppage was bs, Taylor should have won; paradoxally he absorbed a life/career-threatening beating that wrecked him subsequently. But he deserved to win that night and was robbed by Steele.
how freaky was it to see JCC JNR almost do the same to martinez after being embaressed for 11 and 3/4 rounds
as someone who supports the idea taylor should have been allowed to continue, what do you say to the people who say "taylor was out of it.. he was not even looking at the ref, he was starring blankly towards his corner" ? also i highly doubt steele could have known how much time was left in the round
Would have been something for Jr. to have stopped Martinez. However, I think you know that the parralel stops at just that, a last round stoppage. Jnr got dominated where as Snr. put a systematic beatdown on Meldrick Taylor who fought at the highest level he was capable of.
Yeah the refree caused Taylor to have a broken eye socket, broken ribs, badly busted up face, had a lot of blood pumped from his stomach, was ****ing blood for weeks and was in hospital for almost 2 weeks following the fight. The worst beating ever inflicted be a refree in the history of the sport. :roll:
Taylor suffered a broken eye socket, broken ribs, badly busted up face, had a lot of blood pumped from his stomach, was ****ing blood for weeks and was in hospital for almost 2 weeks following the fight. Yeah Taylor dominated the fight :roll::roll: NOT!