Steele in the taylor/chavez fight

Can't realy say much about Steele, But an immediate rematch should have taken place...
Taylor defo fought his ass off that night, But he also recived a massive amount of damage in return.

That said, Meldrick defo deserved to survive that KD.
Looking back, I never really accepted that as a win for Chavez or a defeat for Taylor...
Just a "classic" styles match-up that needed a winner.

 

Both men were brilliant that night. Unfortunately we are stuck with that horrible ending.

 

Steele did the right thing stopping that fight. Meldrick wouldve gotten Mayorga'd if the fight wouldve continued.

 

"Both men were brilliant that night. Unfortunately we are stuck with that horrible ending. "

Or... one of the most glorious endings in the history of boxing depending on your point of view

 

You got me there. Replace horrible with "controversial".

 

Please you say Bernard was hurting Joe with those few punches compared to Joe's many more. But Julio Cs. "HORRIBLE" cumulative pounding wasn't enough. Lost his prime in one night some said -I know I'm using understatement.:good

 

I wouldn't say it was the stoppage itself that ruined Taylor. Of course it must've hurt him extremely badly, but Taylor simply taking too much punishment in the ring in general is what ruined him. He wasn't ever quite the same again, although he was still pretty good afterwards, and Taylor's team made a terrible decision IMO by putting him in there with Terry Norris.

Steele's been criticized and accused of being pro-King, because of this and the Tyson-Ruddock first fight. On the other hand, his point deductions against Chavez played a big part in his loss to Randall. I haven't seen enough evidence in Steele's fights involving King fighters to say he was too pro-King. I heard Steele did a terrible job in one of Keith Holmes's fights, a King fighter, and helped Holmes, but I never saw that bout.

In the ones I've seen, he let both Tyson and Bruno get away with a lot of fouling, had the two stoppages that favored King fighters, and took crucial points away from Chavez.

 

I think Taylor didn't answer his questions, didn't look at the referee, and the stoppage was legit whether there were 2 seconds or 2 rounds left. You don't look at a fighter who's out on his feet and try to figure out if he can make it to the bell, that's not the ref's job. You look at him and determine if he can continue fighting, and Taylor couldn't.

 

Hell no.

You have to remember a few things.

1. If a fighter doesn't respond, the fight is stopped. Simple as that. Was Steele supposed to just sit there and wait for Taylor to give him the answer that he was looking for?

2. Steele isn't a clock, and he isn't keeping the time in his head. He sees a fighter who has obviously taken a horrible beating, at a much closer range than any of us did. It doesn't matter if there is 2 minutes left or 10 seconds... if a fighter doesn't respond to you... the fight is over.

3. Look at how that fight completely ruined Taylor. Not only as a fighter, but the man isn't the same, mentally. He was completely spent, and completely beat down. It could only take ONE SINGLE punch to end a man's life at that state. I can only imagine the outrage against Steele, the blame that people would throw on him, and the guilt that he would have to live with if he let a non-responsive Taylor back into the fight, and he ate one more brutal right hand which caused bleeding on the brain and he died. Everyone would be crucifying Steele for not protecting Taylor and allowing him to die by allowing him to be hit again when he didn't respond that he was ok.

 

Widdow is dead right on points 1,2, and 3. Steele was absolutely justified in stopping that fight regardless of time left. Taylor DID NOT respond. Simple as that. The time element is irrelevant, rounds are 3 minutes long, not two minutes fifty-five.

I never understood what the hell the controversy was about. It's a no-brainer for a properly trained ref to make.

 

Its just that simple.

Aside from not responding to Steeles commands.....a fighter who wants and is ready to continue, alerts the referee of it even when the ref is not asking him questions.

If you're OK to continue, goodness.....raise your arms and let the ref know about it, both with your arms raised and verbally......no such thing from Taylor.


Sadly, those that dog Steele on this issue, dont do so because he did'nt follow protocol..........
.....they do so because they feel that since there were so few seconds left, Steele should have taken the gamble and played with Taylor's health/life, and signaled for the fight to resume in the hopes that there would'nt be enough time for Chavez to land another shot!:-(

Characters who feel that it was a bad stoppage, are of the opinion that Steele should have played a game of Russian Roulette with Taylor's life!:nut

 

While the stoppage may be questioned, lets remember that Taylor was urinating pure blood in the hospital that night. One more shot could have killed him in the ring(Steele's perspective). Its unfortunate that it happened with so little time left, but if his corner is competent or he answers the questions the fight is over.

 

Yes, it was well known that Steele was King's man, and no accident that he called off a fight early right after this to give another King fighter - Mike Tyson - a victory over Razor Ruddock.

I thought this stoppage was outrageous when I first saw it 20 years ago, and I still think so. Noone will ever convince me that Steele couldn't have let it go for a couple more SECONDS, or that there isn't something fishy about why he didn't!

 

Byrd's decision tonight was, by far, much worse than Steele's! Taylor was hurt badly, had to go to hospital, be given blood, etc., Gonzales was not ever hurt and Byrd stopped that fight with only 43 seconds left, for no reason but to keep Gamboa's KO record higher.