Did Chavez ruin Meldrick Taylor

or was Taylor moving up in weight 19 pounds and the Terry Norris knockout that ended his career? He did win a belt after the Chavez defeat against Aaron Davis

 

Chavez broke him up from the inside out. Had Richard Steele allowed Taylor to finish and get the decision, he was already done. Would of been one of the worst beatings ever taken by a winner in history..

 

The Chavez loss definitely took a lot out of Taylor but he seemed to still have some fight left in him when he beat Aaron Davis. His back-to-back losses to Norris and Espana was what ruined Taylor completely. Still don't understand why he would agree to move up in weight to face Norris in the first place.

 

Receny history, maybe. It wouldn’t even rate a mention as late as the 1940’s.

 

I agree with that assessment.
I wonder if they took the Norris fight as a cash grab because they saw the writing on the wall after the Chavez fight? The corner work in the Espana fight was certainly that of people disinterested in the outcome or the fighter.
It is also worth noting that Taylor began training for Chavez at 190 pounds. What was he getting up to between fights before and after that? It is very possible that his own habits took as much out of him as Chavez did by beating him into small sized pieces.

 

I do think that the psychological letdown also ruined Meldrick Taylor who fought his heart out, only to fall short to controversy.

 

As noted elsewhere on this thread, Meldrick had some terrible self-control problems and ballooned up between fights. Then had to cut weight drastically.

Moving up was probably him saying ‘I can’t cut that much weight anymore, it’s too hard, it makes me feel weak’ and feeling some false sense of security that he would be better a couple of divisions above his championship weight because he felt so much stronger in comparison … without taking into account or fully realizing that these significantly larger men (probably cutting a good bit of weight themselves) were going to be hitting significantly harder and dishing out significantly more heaping helpings of punishment.

 

Basically yes Taylor took so much punishment in that fight he looked like a monster after it. Commentary on the fight was pathetic they were acting like Chavez wasnt doing anything. Taylor fighting Terry Norris was truly sad.

 

I agree that Chavez never got enough recognition for all the work that he did.

Meldrick fought superbly and it was real shame he wasn´t allowed to get that historic victory.

Had they then had a direct rematch I think Chavez would have won.

Meldrick was a phenomical talent, such speed but had that Philly mentality of exchanging

punches but he didn´t have the power and less so at welter.

Good win over Aaron Davis but barely survived hard punching but average Glenwood Brown

(lost 1st fight to an ancient Saul Mamby) and just suicidal fighting Norris.

 

The experience ruined him ... people forget how great that Chavez still was and how exceptional Taylor performed ... it always struck me as halfway between absurd and horridly unlucky that stoppage was but it took its toll on Taylor and not holding it together and working his way all the way back showed some mental weakness .. he supposedly became heavily involved with drugs and it all crashed and burned ..

 

This is an excellent point. I don't think he ever recovered psychologically from what he felt was a robbery. If I remember correctly, he suffered a cut in the mouth in sparring which was responsible for him swallowing a lot of blood during the fight.

 

To a fairly great extent yes.

 

It is rather obvious that Chaves ruined Taylor.

 

Good Post.

 

Not ruined imo but he definitely was never the same.