Duran vs. Meldrick Taylor

I don't believe Taylor could beat a prime and focused Duran.

Duran did virtually everything better than Chavez. Taylor just left himself too open to punches himself, and Duran would find the same holes that Chavez did in Meldrick's offensive bursts.

Also, Duran was superior defensively than Chavez, he would not be hit by as many shots as Chavez was, and would stay on an at least an even level early before taking over the fight once Taylor began to fade late from all of the punishing shots. He gets to Taylor quicker than Chavez did, and the fight is over by the 11th.

 

Taylor isn't mobile or elusive enough here IMO. Super fast but not in a defensive way. Duran would wear him down.

 

Yeah, this is a different fight because of Duran's superior (to Chavez) ability from the outside. Duran by decision or late stoppage (definitely over 15 rounds).

 

Taylor fights bravely, but gets stopped within 8 or 9. Duran was alot quicker than Chavez, and had better skills, and alot more power.

 

Duran is better defensively than Chavez, better from the outside, has greater one punch power and footspeed. Plus the fight with Taylor is one of Chavez' worse performances.

Duran by KO, or if Taylor is being smart and running rather than exchanging as he preferred to do, a lopsided decision.

 

How was the Taylor fight one of Chavez' worst performances? It's by far his best win, Taylor's speed, workrate, and lateral movement gave Chavez more problems than anyone had in his career up to that point, so yes he did not look as destructive in this fight as he did against Haugen or as punishingly clinical as he did against Rosario, but he was facing an overall superior fighter than anyone he had fought. Chavez overcame a massive speed disparity with his timing, accuracy, power, toughness, and resiliancy. These are his best attributes and all of them were put to the test in this fight, It's the win that makes him as great as he is.

Apart from this, I disagree entirely on your comment that Taylor preferred to run rather than exchange. Meldrick was all fighter, he was constantly throwing punches and exchanging with everybody, he never backed down from an exchange. Taylor was not a runner, he was the farthest thing from it.

 

Taylor had too much philly in him he would trade with Duran and that would be is undoing Duran by late KO.

 

I was trying to say that Taylor preferred to exchange, and the smart thing to do in this fight would be to run. Running in this case would give him a much better chance to survive. Sorry if that was unclear.

As for Chavez: Chavez never entirely got his style of surgical, break you down and steamroll you pressure on track in the Taylor bout. For example, it's been a while since I rewatched the fight, but I can remember very few times that he managed to back Taylor up and pin him against the ropes or in a corner and unleash steady damage. The fight is fought almost entirely in the center of the ring and due to Taylor's handspeed (which kept forcing Chavez to duck or block flurries) and his footspeed, (which he used to consitently out move and slip around Chavez) Chavez was put into the role of looking for one or two shots at a time and his offense limited to bursts of that instead of his customary steady pressure and sustained offense.

The fight is a great show of Chavez' will, patience, determination and strength, but not of his skills or general fighting style and gameplan. Hence why, despite coming from behind and it being one of the biggest wins of his career, I wouldn't say it's one of his best fights.

 

Chavez couldn't back Taylor up and his offense was limited because of Taylor, not because Chavez had an off night. It wasn't the most impressive performance of his career in terms of how good he looks, but it's the best fighter he had fought up to that point, the best fighter he ever beat in his career.

Duran knocks out Taylor inside of 11 rounds, but part of your argument that Duran would win was that it was not one of Chavez' best performances. Duran wins because he is overall superior to Chavez, better at virtually everything, and if Chavez can beat Taylor Duran could have as well in more impressive fashion, but not because Chavez did in what was one of his "worst performances." Chavez never really could have done any better than he did, so I don't see how it's a bad performance.

 

Nice post.

 

I thought Chavez performed extremely well, as good as he could've really. Even while being outlanded at least 2 to 1 he was landing the harder, more telling shots throughout the bout and never being deterred from his gameplan or was thrown off track. Great stuff from Chavez.

 

Chavez had all the troubles in the world trying to KO Taylor (which he did eventually) and he couldn't compare to Duran in every department.
Plus, I don't think Taylor's hand speed, his greatest weapon, would trouble Roberto that much. The lightweight Duran was a beast of power and speed too (not at the same speed as Meldrick of course) and he had a tremendous offensive package with a pretty good defense as well.

Duran by mid stoppage.

 

Chavez never performed extremely well, but he did perform as good as he possibly could considering how Taylor performed. The movement of Taylor clearly bothered him, as did his fast combinations and handspeed. And IMO Taylor's blows were equally as hard for the first 8-9 rounds, although the effects were different. It wasn't just non effective flurries Taylor scored with, he also landed heavy shots. However, because his strategy and style was based on speedy combos it's only natural to overlook how clean his power punches were at times.


The HBO team scored the fight perfectly. And at the end of mostly every round, no hesitation whatsoever for another one in the bag for Taylor.

IMO Chavez done well down the stretch, but looking at his performance 'entirely' he was out-landed and dominated for the vast majority of the fight.

 

I disagree. He was not dominated, he was simply outlanded because Taylor had faster, more active hands, nothing more. Chavez timed his clean shots, whereas Taylor would just unleash his hands when he got in close, never coming even close to hurting Chavez, though his movement at times caused him to reset.

I agree Taylor was winning most rounds due to his output, but it was not one-sided given the direction of the bout, nor as clean a rout for Taylor on the cards as the HBO team was saying. The first time I saw the fight I was looking for magic from Taylor and expecting the domination I'd been hearing about. That's not what I saw.