Fellas, Everybody still seems to mention and whine on how referee Richard Steele blew the call in "Taylor-Chavez 1" of 1990 when he halted the action with (2) seconds remaining in the 12th and final rd... Myself, I too felt the stoppage was sketchy, however, Taylor did screw himself good when he glanced away from the referee to seek additional aide from his corner, instead of giving Richard Steele a straight-forward look and answer... BIG MISTAKE from Mel Taylor... NOW! What about SRL's 9th round TKO win over Ayub Kalule in 1981? Leonard decked Kalule at the end of the 9th round, but Kalule got up to regroup, however, the referee looked into Kalule's glazed eyes and stopped the fight when the bell had already sounded to end the 9th stanza... WTF? Kalule was not even given a chance to gather himself between rds to see if he could fight on in round 10... Okay, SRL was ahead and looked like he was well on his way to earning his second world title up at 154 pounds, but, I still think Ayub Kalule was dicked over to a certain degree in Texas by that ******* referee.... C'mon back here and chatter..... MR.BILLatsch:twisted:bbb:hat
I agree. No one talks about Lucas/Jones either but past like the 9th round there was no point in letting it continue. After thinking about it thoroughly I thought Steele made the right choice in Taylor-Chavez 1.
There are conflicting accounts of this, including kalule apparently telling the ref he didn't want to continue(though he looked befuddled and briefly protested the stoppage)albeit by typically pro Leonard sports illustrated i think. Taken at face value it was certainly a premature stoppage, though not really comparable to the controversial fight deciding circumstances of Chavez taylot. Benitez was shafted even worse against Ray.
Good calls, Lora......... But I still think Kalule should've been allowed to sitdown after the 9th round to regroup.... He was well behind against SRL, yet, he was the defending WBA champ... He was shafted to a large degree in Texas back in 1981..... WORD! bbb:hi::hat MR.BILL:think
Kalule later admitted that he had signaled to the ref that he couldn't continue, and said he would've fought on if he had realized the round had ended.
Kalule did shrug after the referee called it off but he didn't have the body language to continue imo. He was looking away from the ref & was leaning against the ropes I thought it was a fair stoppage. Earlier, I was agreeing that people don't talk about this stoppage. Like Taylor, Kalule didn't show eagerness to continue and looked negative. I think Leonard would've stopped him eventually.
I saw Kalule's body language once the ref called it off after the 9th round had ended as a sign of: "Damn, my belt is gone, as is the future bucks." He was hurt, but not totally gone... And with the break between rds 9 and 10, who can say what may have occurred.?.? MR.BILL
Kalule had a great pro record going into the SRL fight in Texas back in '81...... But he looked like a shell a year later against the late Davey Moore on net TV..... GEEZ! MR.BILL
Maybe it was stopped prematurely, but Ray was going to step it up another level, and eventually stop Ayub. But it wasn't Ray best performance, and the chances of Ayub snapping his head back again were good.
Leonard up by 2 & 3 points at end of 8th round. time: 3:06 | referee: Carlos Berrocal 78-76 | judge: Harmodio Cedeno 78-76 | judge: Ismael W. Fernandez 78-75
See, that's kool, but Kalule was up, yet given no chance to recover between rds... That pisses me off.... MR.BILL