I just rewatched Julio Cesar Chavez Jr - Meldrick Taylor I for the first time in a long time. The general consensus is that Taylor was way ahead on the scoreheads when the stoppage came at the end of the 12 round. I don't see too many people arguing with that, but did any of us find any rounds for JCC through the first 6? I ask because I did, and yet the commentary team at HBO were all unanimous in giving every round to the American. There were quite a few exchanges throughout the fight where I thought JCC's work was going unappreciated or unnoticed by the commentary team. There was a reason Taylor's face was a bloody mass by the time he was being interviewed by HBO's Larry Merchant. Thoughts? :think
Thanks for the input guys. I remember thinking JCC had done quite well, or at least dealt a decent amount of damage in both rounds 2 and 5. I'm not convinced he won either round, but there was probably arguments for both. Taylor was winning the vast majority of exchanges but he would have to take a really stiff right hand or a thudding left hook every now and then. He wasn't visibly wobbled in any of the early stages, but you got the sense that whereas Chavez was easily brushing off Taylor's best work the same couldn't be said vice versa. Taylor was certainly feeling the shots and they would later tell.
The night of the fight, in a crowded pro-Taylor bar, with no HBO "commentary" to be heard, I figured that the knockdown in the 12th sealed it for Chavez. I had him up a point or two, but thought a couple rounds could go either way. I was amazed that Taylor was able to take such a beating. And that beating was not administered over the course of 1-2 rounds. Of the judges, only Giampa had the scoring right. Either RING, or maybe Boxing Illustrated, in their subsequent coverage of the fight stated that it was very close and the only bad thing about the fight was that two of the judges had 5 and 7 point margins.