First off, the man was/is a legend. Padding or not,his record is absolutely incredible. His finest performance? IMO it's the night he dominated Rosario in 1987. He walked through the man's hardest shots to wear him down . 9,000 punches thrown with bad intentions (slight exaggeration lol, but only slight). It was for me, Chavez's technical peak.
As a bloated, besodden, past prime, over natural weight, partied out elder holding a prime Whitaker, at his best weight, to a draw, a fight which could have been scored for Julio, that performance was a masters class in holding on to quickly declining skills with all the disadvantages possible.
He lost the first round against Roger Mayweather, then it was just like Roger Mayweather wasn't there. It was mad. Rosario is probably the right answer though.
Hate me if you like but Taylor 1. The way he never gave up...continued to break Taylor down...broke bones and force fed him is own blood despite what the scorecards said. I just don't know how Taylor was winning that fight. That seems a dominant display of clean, hard punching to me, and should have been stopped a lot earlier.
That' was an insane performance by both men. Chavez for never stopping trying to win, and Taylor for... basically winning a fight whilst having his soul beaten out of him.
The machine that beat up an exceptionally gifted Rosario was a monster. So strong, deceptively fast , so precise with his punching .. near impossible to hurt , big, consistent heavy handed power .. deceptive speed .. that guy was one of the best lightweights ever ... no one fights him and wins for sure, even Duran .. if that fight ever took place my bet would be Duran would be the one boxing ...
Besides his performance against Rosario I always thought his thrashing of Greg Haugen was one of his best showing, especially knowing that he fought with mean intention because of the pre fight build up.
For sure … he destroyed Haugen but to destroy a prime , murderous punching Rosario who was coming off his biggest win vs Bramble was something.
Agreed. That was an embarrassing nite for HBO. Larry Merchant literally asked Richard Steele why he didn't cheat for the American fighter.
I'll put in a vote for Taylor 1. Meldrick would have been an alltime great at 140lbs if he fought in any other era. He was fighting great too but Julio showed him a rare level of greatness.