Meldrick "TNT Kid" Taylor - pinpointing the moment the fuse was snuffed...

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by IntentionalButt, May 24, 2019.



  1. richdanahuff

    richdanahuff Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    JCC took a lot out of him that was a damaging fight and Taylor was hurt

    Fighters do not always know they have lost something until they run into another force like he did against JCC that night...hot and cold performances after a fight like that is a sign of the toll one fight can take....any fighter who has been in a brutal fight can tell you that the willingness to walk through that fire a second time is tougher with every fight
     
  2. Saad54

    Saad54 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    The Chavez fight was his Manilla.

    Anyway, he had a style that didnt bode well for s protracted stay at the top.

    Still, he reached a high ceiling and, with his acomplishments, seem s bit underrated.
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2019
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  3. thanosone

    thanosone Love Your Brother Man Full Member

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    Not gonna exaggerate but Chavez killed him.
     
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  4. TBooze

    TBooze Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    He did not look right in the Ramos fight, he had lost a step. With hindsight the Davis fight was a much better win than I gave credit for at the time. The Garcia fight suggested Taylor was struggling to keep it together, and although the flash knockdowns were the unconcerning types, that Taylor seemed unable to box Brown, being drawn into a war he did not need suggested to me Norris would have his number, although I did not think it would be as brutal as it was.

    I still thought when he came back down he would too much for the merely 'good' Venezuelan Irishman, but Norris had finished off what Chavez started.
     
  5. Flash24

    Flash24 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    I've always said Taylor, even before Chavez had a tendency to stand and trade too often, and he received punishment against fighters that wasn't that special more than his incredible athletic ability should've allowed . He was literately a shooting star, he shined brightly for a short period but faded very quickly. He was extremely fast, but didn't have great pop in his punches . It allowed Chavez to walk him down without fear , and allowed other fighters to last longer then they should've . His height and weight and lack of punching power suggest he should've remained at light/superlight weight . So Chavez in my opinion was the tipping point, and after the wear and tear of that fight his career was going down the mountain. The Norris fight only proved how far he had slid, and he didn't belong at superwelter. It does nothing for Norris other than add a "name" opponent win , but one that was clearly faded, like most of Norris's "name" wins.
     
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  6. robert ungurean

    robert ungurean Богдан Philadelphia Full Member

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    That and from what I remember reading Taylor like alot of his Philadelphia predecessors didnt know how to take it easy in the gym. Every spar was a fight and he was sparring seasoned fighters by the time he was 17 yrs old.
     
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  7. Saad54

    Saad54 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Stout post.
     
  8. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me Full Member

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    Not sure how it can be interpreted that I was overburdening Terry with plaudits for the win. :thinking: I explicitly stated that he was far too big and too good and took stylistically advantaged for Meldrick to be trifling with.

    People need to stop ferreting out supposed hidden agendas in my posts; that isn't how I operate. I'm more of a face-value guy. This isn't to denigrate JCC, nor to big up Norris, and not even to play the apologist for Taylor nor overrate him. I'm simply asking questions and placing us in that alternate timeline where Richard Steele made a different judgment call in the moment. I personally believe Taylor was a viable B+ welterweight before he made the colossally arrogant error of jumping to light middle. Some may disagree, that's fine...but there's otherwise no subterfuge at play here. I'm not bringing any veiled biased agenda for anyone or against them, and I would appreciate if anybody that is bringing those biased agendas into the conversation ...not. If you want to react emotionally do so in the plenty of threads extant on those fighters, and don't sully mine. :thumbsup:

    (Not singling you out btw, @Flash24 - nor even suggesting that you were doing that...but just using my response to you as springboard to make that general announcement)
     
  9. Flash24

    Flash24 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Where do you see any emotion on anything I wrote on this topic? Where's the bias? Just wrote the facts the way I see them. I never accused you of some agenda. So the defensive stance you you've taken is completely unnecessary....... Unless their was an agenda.
     
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  10. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me Full Member

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    Would you kindly STFU, you moron? Or maybe reread my post and not skip the parenthetical paragraph at the end this time?
     
  11. Flash24

    Flash24 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Now this sounds familiar . Red?
     
  12. SHADAPBLAD

    SHADAPBLAD Viscous Knockouts Full Member

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    Dude, your OP is pretty confusing. Noones trying to say youre a liar. I didnt mean you had some hidden agenda, its just that it feels like youve deliberately muddled your post, whether it is to spark more conversation or to cover holes in your knowledge of Meldrick Taylor, I dont know. If that is not the case, then whatever. Maybe you recognize me from a few troll attempts on the general and you think I'm doing the same here. But I'm not. You seem uptight and theres no reason to be
     
  13. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me Full Member

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    Oh idk, maybe the flagrantly antagonistic tone of posts like, say, this one?

    Combined with everyone bending over backwards to, even if more civilly than RingKing, "poke holes" in my OP and take a contrarian stance for the sake of doing so (even Drew's post comes off as kind of pedantic, to be honest, pointedly attempting to undermine things I had said while not actually disproving them and putting forth conclusions that were ultimately not even incompatible with my own, but still with this "putting me in check" tone, like I was some chump to be dismissed as (like you've just done) lacking in knowledge instead of someone that deserves benefit of the doubt, as I do, as I've been a contributing member (albeit not always on a regular basis) of Classic much longer than anybody here save a minuscule number (ie McGrain, he grant, reznick etc)

    ..and there's been a growing trend lately of the current (mind you, not so much the original) denizens of the classic forum adopting this (IMO very unearned) haughty attitude toward what they perceive as their inferiors from the General/British/other forums. In the old days, maybe there was a generally higher class of poster in Classic, but most of the people that made it so have either passed on from old age or simply no longer post here as much, with a very few notable exceptions. The newjacks acting like this is the house they built and like they're better than any of the average riff-raff in the General forum gets my goat. Virtually none of you with join dates in the last decade or so deserve to be on that pedestal that many seem to feel entitled to clamber up on.
     
  14. ETM

    ETM I thought I did enough to win. Full Member

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    Being from Philly Taylor was one of my favorites. He never seemed to be able to even talk quite the same after JCC. Not smooth like he once was. I'm sure he lost a boatload of confidence. Anyone would..I think 140 was the perfect division for him but he met somebody just uncommonly good. There is not too many 140lbers that could beat Meldrick Taylor.
    Apart from the damage both mental and physical I think 147 is a big jump up in weight for guys that small.
    Chavez's presence caused them to run up to Welterweight. Davis, Brown, Garcia they were ordinary boxers. He had no real buisness up there at 5-6 with no power and he didn't take a good shot anymore.
    In all honesty other than the first 3 rounds against Aaron Davis, Taylor never looked good again. Davis was shocked by Taylor's speed but he was getting to him some but ran out of time.
     
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  15. redrooster

    redrooster Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    definitely the Norris fight. I think Meldrick was in over his head even with Terry coming down to 149

    However, even at 149, he was just as sweet as he was at 154!
     
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