I wouldnt say greatest fight ever, it was a very good fight tho. Morales MAB 1 gets my vote for that honour. Ps. I wasnt suprised to hear that chuck giampa had chavez ahead, he was the guy who had barrera 8-4 in the 2nd morales fight, it should have been vice versa, he should be investigated or sacked imo. :good
Everytime I see this now that I know the extent of the injuries he had that night (a belly full of blood, for starters, and a facial fracture) I imagine what Taylor must have felt like when he got up off the canvas. Maybe he was worried he had lost the fight, as Duva had told him they needed this round and he got knocked down. Maybe he was confused and everything was swimming and he just turned towards the loudest thing. I don't know. I just know that I wish this fight was stopped in the seventh. Those two seconds here or there don't even matter as much as everyone says. Boxing fans think so, and I imagine Meldrick himself even does, but the truth is, the Meldrick Taylor his mama knew died that night.
Taylor was in big trouble going into the 12th. His outstanding performance was over shadowing the beating he was taking. There was nothing on his shots but in return he was getting busted up. I don't think I have ever seen a fighter busted up so bad while winning the fight by such a wide margin. The stoppage was a no brainer. Taylor could not continue. It would have been criminally irresponsible for him to be allowed to continue. As it stands he was ruined by the beating. I don't understand why he did not take the round off. He stood in there and exchange with a fresher stronger fighter. Not smart. The focus is not and should have never been why Steel stopped the fight. Rather the focus should be why Taylor was fighting like he was behind in the last few rds.
Too many people get caught op on the emotion of the fight, and what happened to Taylor afterwards, like his career crashing....but only Meldrick coul have stoped this debate from starting...all he had to do was say he is ok....time is irrelevant...
Again Sam, there were actually 6 to 7 seconds when Steele waived the fight off, more than enough time for Chavez to have unloaded at least a couple of more punches. The official time of stoppage was with 2 seconds left, because the timekeeper let the clock run down all the way to 2 seconds even after Steele had waived it off. Again there was more than 2 seconds left when the fight was stopped!!!
I was afraid the next punch or two would have resulted in some kind of "Mortal Kombat"-type of 'Fatality.' When the guy doesn' respond to your instructions and isn't looking at you after being knocked down, you have to stop the fight and protect what is likely a dazed fighter. If you want to blame anyone, blame Lou Duva for cliimbing on the ring apron and distracting Meldrick. That's the guy to blame.
Did the ring doctor examine Taylor before the 12th round? He looked pretty bad going into the 12th, or did Duva ever say if he considered stopping it in between rounds? The physical beating Taylor suffered was pretty much career ending. If taylor HAD won. he most likely would have lost the title in his first defense. He just wasn't the same fighter anymore.
Oh ok i didnt know that mate.... then.. my opion is that Steele made the right call... just like it was before i knew there was more then 2 secs left
B*llSh*t time is irrelevant. If this is true, then why not take a 5 minute break when you get knocked down or stop the clock after you have won the first minute of a round. This way your opponent can't steal the other 2 minutes left...
PJ, What i mean when i say that time is irrelevant....is that steele is not supposed to try to get an exact time left in the round ot make his decision weather to stop the fight or not.....Steele is not supposed to say..."well your not responding to 2 of my questions, but theres probably not much time left so lets stand here and let time run out".......If Richard Steele feels a fighter cannot continue, or if Steele asks a fighter if he is ok twice and he sees a fighter is not fit, he is sot supposed to take time or try to do math, and let the fight go........TIME IS IRRELEVANT!!!.... yes it sucks that taylors career went crashing downhill and he suffered the worst beating of his life Yes it sucks that Duva gave him shitty instructiong going into the twelth Yes it sucks that Duva jumped around and "might" have distracted him... But ultimately, he did nto respond....untimately, he was out of his feet... Times does not matter, when the ref is judging a fighters ability to continue.......and yes in that case >>>TIME IS IRRELEVANT!
It was a horrible stoppage period!! Look at all the circumstances.. Why it shouldn't have been stopped Big Fight! Taylor was fighting til the very end, and it wasn't like he was there getting beat down and not responding. Chavez definately had the upper hand, but Taylor was still there making a fight of it. He deserved the opportunity to go on! Why it was stopped Richard Steele is the Ref! Don King is the promoter! It was the only way to secure a win for Kings man!! Chavez had the upper hand but Taylor still fought his ass off. After he was down he got up seeming more fatigued than out of it, and he looked toward his corner as Duva was saying something. Steele says Taylor didn't respomd and he was right, but he also saw Taylor looking into his corner. How many times do you see a ref stop a fight where a fighter is standing looking into his corner as they both are speaking? Steele knew Duva was talking to Taylor, and made no attempt to get Taylors attention back to him. I could see if Taylor was staring into space or something, but he wasn't. Alot of fighter look to there corner after a KD, and ref's recognize that and regaing the fighters attention. Steele took advantage of the situation as they all needed Chavez to get that win because it was the only way! Steele had seen it all, and he knew what was going on. Ppl say Taylor looked bad when he got up, well he looked the same way going into the 11th, and 12rds, but he fought on the same way. Also ppl say Chavez ruined him, and all the damage Taylor took that fight is a good reason to stop a fight w/2 secs left, and that's Bull****!! No one knew the damage til after the fight, and Taylor fought nothing like a man who had that type of damage. It shouldn't weigh in ppls minds today when talking about the decision to stop the fight:nono Bottom is Steele made a horrible call on purpose!! Many fighters have gotten up hurt, and tired and had the opportunity to go on especially in Big fights like that one, and Steele blew it for a man named Don King, and his fighter!!
can't argue with Steele, but he could've let it continue for damn 2 secs and let Taylor have the victory he risked his life for...
Big game... What was Steele supposed to do ask him 5 times??? he asked him twice!!...it all falls back on Taylor....i just watched the Hokpkins/Tito fight and watch the last round.......Tito gets an ass whoopin through that fight, and when he gets dropped....HE IMMEDIATELY LOOKS FOR THE REF AND NODS HIS HEAD IM OK!!! IM OK!!!.......every fighter does that...they petition to the ref immediately reflexively because its ingrained in them since they were kids and in the amateurs that the REF CAN STOP THE fiGHT AT ANYTIME!!!!.....Taylor is the only person that could have stopped everything and behaved like a Coherent fighter....all he had to do was nod and say "Im ok"...why dont you put the blame on Taylor?? he is the one who could have prevented this....Let me ask you this.....ask 1000 fighters on what to do after you get dropped when you stand back up....i guarantee you none(ZERO) will say..."ITS OK TO LOOK CONFUSED AND IGNORE THE REF"...None of them will tell you that In fact you say that we didnt know until later all the extent of his injuries, YOUR EXACTLY RIGHT.....after its all said and done and we know how beat Taylor was ....and how much blood he pissed and drank and with his fractured face and most importantly(reported by doctor) BRAIN TRAUMA....that is why we can spectulate and make an educated guess as to why he did not behave like everyother fighter....becasue of those injuries he ignored Steele, because of that beating he did not nod his head and behave like he should have...his injuries prevented him from doing what he was supposed to and saying he was ok.... let me ask you, why dont you put any blame on Taylor?? when he is the only erson that could have controlled his own destiny...he was the one in the ring being asked questions...
