How bad of shape was Taylor in after his first fight with Chavez? And what if they had a rematch the following year?
He was beat up pretty good. He suffered numerous cuts and bumps and also suffered from dehydration due to bleeding from the mouth and internal bleeding. They had to take him to the hospital after the fight, so overall he was just banged up really badly. As to a rematch, to be honest I think it would probably go the same way. Taylor's spirit was broken in that fight, and he just was never the same force again. The guy had too much heart for his own good.
He was beat up, but no wheres as badly as the masses who spout uninformed rhetoric regurgitated from other ungrounded opinions. After this fight Taylor moved up in weight and continued to call out Chavez, but Chavez was un willing to move up and Taylor unable to move down...so unfortuantely we will nevere know. I know many say that Chavez ruined taylor (and perhaps long term he may have contributed significantly?), yet after this he beat the unbeaten davis in what I would call his best performance ever....after still not being able to lure Chavez up or land any significant money fights...Taylor made the mistake of again moving up in weight to fight Terrible Terry....Terry ruined Taylor and stole whatever was left of his prime... Who knows what would have happened??? If taylor adapts and fights differently, he could likely win even wider...but my guess is taylor's heart wouldn't allow for that to happen and would need to prove it in the middle of the ring...and we would likely see a close decision his way or late stoppage JCC's???
atsch EPIC FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4 and half years later...Meldrick was no longer considered a top flight challenger on the world level and had loss to guys like Espana after Terry crushed him, and is not even comprable to The Meldrick of the first JCC fight!
I often wondered if Meldrick was training right ? he always seemed to be very Muscular as though he was spending too much time on training with weights, perhaps in the mistaken belief it would turn him into a puncher, where perhaps he should of focused on Subtleness and Stamina ? Perhaps this was when he was losing his disipline outside the ring ? the second Chavez fight showed him to have little substance..dispite his musculature.
Good points! Even at his best Meldrick never possessed a top notch punch, and as he grew in weight and perhaps bulk the little power he once may have had diminshed even more and was non existant by the time he fought Norris. The first round is mildly entertaining and if he possessed any type of punch the fight could have been entertaining. But he had nothing to keep Terry off of him and Norris showed him no respect from the 2nd round on..It was over by the time the 2nd started IMHO. I believe he had the skill/tools to adapt his fighting style...perhaps the fault lies with his trainers for not teaching him to utilize his natural skills ability in a more productive and career lengthening style. but Meldrik grew up watching and fighting in Philadelphia gym wars, and my personal thoughts are he was more concerned with being a warrior and/or a prototypical Philly fighter than he was with anything else.I believe he believed that he would and could slug it out with anyone and take whatever they had to offer....but with his skillset I seems to me a waste of what he might have been able to achieve had he made to best use of his speed....
