A thought about Chavez/Taylor

First... I think that fight as it actually played out SHOULD have been the end of Taylor's career. He was clearly never the same again after that.

As far as the stoppage goes... I watched that fight live on HBO when I was 10 years old. I still feel the same about it now (having re watched the fight many times since) as I did back then. The stoppage was good. Taylor didn't respond to Richard Steele and looked as if he couldn't continue. The fact that Taylor looked about 50% of his former self after that basically proves that it was the right decision, even if there were just a couple seconds left in the fight.

 

Good comparison.

The first knockdown for Enzo was bad enough, but the second was horrific. He shouldn't have suffered that.

 

Mosley had 1 or 2 seconds to knock Mayorga out cold.

 

I think of the end of Mosley/Mayorga when I think of Chavez/Taylor. I'm a proud fan of them both but Chavez deserved that win it's just unfortunate that the rematch happened so late(4 years to be exact). Great fight but Taylor has himself to blame for not fighting more like a boxer and not a brawler. Also not "backing off" in the last round but I still think this fight would still have been bound for controversy because a Taylor win would not be guaranteed even if he had made it to the distance. You never know with judges and how they think...

 

The reason Taylor was KO was because as you mentioned wasn't mobile and was caught, the reason he wasn't mobile was because Chavez had rearranged his internal organs not to mention disfugured his face...

..do you know how hard it is to box of the back foot and bounce around the ring when your liver is swollen, and your eyes are almost shut closed....

...I blame Chavez for Taylor not being mobile and getting KO.

 

I take nothing away from Chavez he dug deep and nailed Taylor with bodyshots especially in the later rounds. What people forget is, he was nailing Taylor quite a bit that night even when he was getting outhustled in the early-mid rounds. Some of those straights he hit Taylor with were a thing of beauty. That punishment added up.

 

It was a good stoppage, for two reasons:

1. A boxing match lasts for 12 rounds, not 11 rounds and 2:58 minutes. If people say that Taylor "deserved" those extra seconds, they say that Chavez deserved to be cheated. If the stoppage would have been good in the 7th round, it was good in the 12th.

2.If Taylor would have gotten those extra seconds, the win would have shown the inherent limitations of the scoring system. The emphasis is on clear, effective punching, but how is effective measured? Taylor landed many more punches without ever slowing Chavez down. Chavez, with fewer punches, broke down Taylor's body, broke his face, send him to the hospital, wherear Chavez looked OK after the fight. Chavez' punches were clearly more effective, but that couldn't be seen until the last stage of the fight and can't be accounted for in the scoring of the early and middle rounds. Therefore, the stoppage wasn't some hugely unfortunate way for Taylor to lose, it accurately reflected that Chavez had beaten up Taylor to the point that he couldn't answer a question.

 

You got to ask yourself this...WHY is it so necessary for a fighter respond to the ref after being hurt? The answer is simple...so the ref knows if the fighter has his wits about him enough to continue.

Steele was incompetent to not realize that there were only 2 seconds left in the fight, and that there wasn't much more Chavez could have done (using latter day references like Mosley-Mayorga and Enzo-Frankel is pointless, btw) But, at the same time, if Taylor isn't responding, he isn't responding. Steele has the right to stop the fight, Chavez deserves his win.

Taylor deserved the win for moral reasons, nothing more.

 

i've been saying that for years....
also, remember when mosley only had about a second left and look what he did to mayorga....it's those blows that really end careers...when you're all dizzy and your mind is gone and then BAM !!!!! ANOTHER FEW SHOTS CAN KILL YOU OR HURT YOU FOREVER......

 

bull****...that two second thing is ******ed....if steele would've let taylor go as soon as he stood up, it would've been 6 seconds....more than enough time for chavez to hurt taylor some more......and keep in mind that lou duva was on the apron so he's lucky they didnt dq him

 

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Nope. Also There was more than 2 seconds left. It was about 5 seconds and taht was more than enough to land on a hurt fighter.

This fight always seems pointless to me. There was a damn rematch and the better man still won.

 

Some would even say that Duva jumping on the apron distracted Taylor and prevented him from answering Steele. But, yeah Duva could of made it a DQ.

If it was Duva or just Taylor being that banged up that caused him not to answer, I believe Steele did the right thing.

 

steele had no choice bro....imagine, just imagine for a second if he would've let him continue...look what chavez did to taylor, he pretty much ended him that night.....now, if steele would've let him go, no doubt chavez would've landed a few more damaging blows....would taylor of stayed up ??? we'll never know...but what we do know is that taylor got ruined that night and if steele would've let it go, wether taylor would've gotten the decision or not, everyone would've blamed steele for not stopping that fight.....