Chavez Vs Taylor 1 - The Stoppage and Aftermath

I was once upset with the stoppage ,but after seeing what bad officiating can do to a figher like in the McLellan & Paret cases:fire I respected Steele's decision & his answer for it.

He basically said when asked why stop the fight with seconds left , that he was not a timekeeper , but the Ref & that his job was to protect the fighter & the man was hurt.

 

Taylor was in a bad way and Steele acted in what he thought was Meldrick's best interest. I think it's one of those "better a little early than a little late" situations.
As for Chavez, I don't know, he was definitely a great fighter. His boxing skills are a little underrated I believe. But having said that, as he approaches the very upper echelon, I think he runs up against guys who were better boxers (Leonard, Hagler, Duran, Sanchez, Whitaker just to name some of his contemporaries). I also think he should've fought more at 135 which I believe was his best weight.

 

Taylor was as brave as they come, but he was no position to continue, Steele did the right thing.

I think people forget sometimes, Taylor had a broken eye orbital and according to his own trainer may of swallowed over a pint of his own blood, due to a mouth injury.

The fight was also closer than some think. From what I remember I had Taylor three rounds up after 11, so that makes my scorecard with a 10-8 final round 114-113......

 

It's not really Steeles fault.
Its more Duva's fault who distracted Taylor

 

There was also enough time for Chavez to drop Taylor again.

 

And if it was over the proper 15 round distance, no one would thought anything of the stoppage.

 

...............I had Taylor up 8-3 at the time of the stoppage, but it's been a really long time since I've seen it, probably the week after it happened, actually. It was aired on network TV the following weekend and I saw it then.

Steele did nothing wrong per se. Those that scream for his head are by inference asking a referee to go above and beyond what is required of a ref's function. They are asking him to look at the time left (by virtue of the red light in the corner), consider the scorecards (or what he guesses are the scorecards) and see if he can't give Taylor a bit of a mulligan considering the circumstances.

I do not ask a referee to consider such things, and so the point is moot.

 

Richard Steele was the only one could make that decision, and there is no evidence to suggest Steele did anything wrong.

 

...............That's not true at all. I have to say, the resulting backlash of the Chavez-Taylor fight did get into his head a bit, and afterward he seemed a little less sure of himself, but leading up to that he was excellent.

 

I've seen worse stoppages. It seems much worse until one realises that the ref's responsibility to keep a count supersedes their responsibility to monitor whether a round is coming to a close. Taken in of itself, it's a questionable but acceptable stoppage.

HOWEVER, one has to wonder what would have happened if it was Chavez who was in Taylor's position. All one can really say is that, when calls in his favour needed to be made, Chavez ALWAYS got them. He was a great fighter, but also an extremely pampered one.

 

.................Indeed. He was Don King's favorite son, that's for sure, and the recipient of many favors.

That's what iced it for me; I had been a fan of Chavez until the Whitaker fight. When things did go wrong, he proved to be more spolied boy than man.