Chavez - Taylor: Good call, or ripoff?

It would have been interesting to see how their careers would have panned out if Taylor had made it to the bell. Although Taylor received such a beating one has to wonder how many years were shaved off him in that fight.
He looked pretty good against Primo Ramos in his first fight after Chavez, but then he declined rapidly.

One thing nobody can say about Taylor is that he lacked heart.

 

Good call.

I was a Taylor fan at the time and at first I thought he got robbed but after taking the emotion out of it I could see it was the right thing to do. Meldrick was badly hurt.

 

In hindsight it was a great call because of the way Taylor ended up but at the time it was a bad call,not as bad as Groves/Froch but pretty bad..

 

Taylor wasn't going to take anymore damage is the point.. .I hate when people say ohhh Steele saved him for more of a beating... there WASN'T TIME FOR ANYTHING.... The fight is over if Steele allows it to continue. Period. Not saying it was the wrong call.. I'm just saying it's wrong to justify the stoppage with... ohhh chavez could've seriously hurt Taylor yada yada.. no he woudln't have. Also, people seem to forget that Taylor was ON HIS FEET VERY QUICKLY.. It wasn't like he was stumbling around and flailing to get up.. He looked fine getting up and wasn't falling all over the place. Certainly didn't seem like he was as badly hurt as people are making out here.

 

The ref screamed at him asking if he was alright and Meldrick Taylor had no response. If the bell hasn't rung, and he's out like that, the other guy won the fight. 2 seconds 2 minutes 2 rounds left whatever.

 

The thing is though.. I got up just fine and wasn't stumbling around at all.. Maybe the reason he didn't answer is the reason he gave... ya know... Duva was screaming at him.. standing on the edge of the rignt as steele was tryign to talk to him and ask him that question.. could that be the reason.. not the ohhhhh my god Taylor was so messed up he couldn't answer.

 

like anything else it depends on where you sit...In retrospect it was a good call because Meldrick took enough punishment and was never the same so one or 2 more punches may have been a poor choice by the Ref

 

Well he would have had more time if Steele didn't ask Taylor repeatedly if he was ok.

 

Are you aware that Taylor was in hospital for nearly 2 weeks after the fight?

 

Did you have a fight that I didn't have.. one where Taylor was falling all over the place and could barely get up?

 

I agree with this stance. He wasn't flopping all over, barely on his feet. He was standing rather solidly on his feet, to be honest. His face was a mess, but his legs looked a hell of a lot sturdier than a lot of guys for whom the fight was allowed to continue.

How long Taylor was in the hospital afterward has nothing to do with the argument. Kind of a curious thing to say, really. Joe Frazier was in the hospital about that long after Ali I, as well. Does that have any bearing on the fight itself? Of course not.

 

But it does prove that Chavez wasn't completely schooled throughout the entire fight like many claim.

 

I suppose.

 

I never said Chavez was schooled for the entire fight... I don't think he did. He clearly got the better of the fight and was well ahead. My only point is this whole notion that Taylor was a mess and could barely stand and was one punch away from the grave is just silly. He wasn't and he wasn't.

 

Wow I've been watching boxing since around 1974, forty years now, and have never seen a fighter school another fighter, in a boxing match, and end up in the hospital for 2 long weeks, and a broken face, (eye socket), and swallowed insane amounts of his own blood, and his face looked like he went thru a meat grinder, And COULD NOT answer the referee, when he's screaming in your grill from 2 inches away asking if you can keep fighting:huh
The only fighter that did the schooling was the tougher, stronger, guy with the better chin, and more skilled, and experienced, Chavez..
One more thing Chavez excelled over Taylor is picking a better corner, Lou Duva:verysad is a jackass, he did Taylor no favors that night..