In the ref's decision to stop it, yeah. I'm just saying, if Steele had told Chavez to go back to the corner and waited to see that he did it, as I've seen fighters do, he might've not had to make a decision. The bell may have rung.
Taylor would have been MORE of the great fighter he once was if he DIDN'T HAD fought JCC exp(Tito vs Vargas).
I always thought Steele did the right thing. Duva just acted like an ******* after the fight. Meldrick was taking a lot of punishment in there. I did see Legendary Night Fights and his current state is a little sad now but it is his choice.
I have to agree 100%. JCC gave him a beating of a lifetime. though he was still good afterwards, he was never the same. It would have been one thing if he got beat down Cotto/Marg style with more of a mental beating, but he just took way too much of a physical beating at a stage in his career when he still much more to give.
In actuality, when a knockdown occurs, a ref should tell the standing fighter to go to the neutral corner.......many refs dont follow that protocol because they instruct the fighters to do so in their pre-fight instructions at their respective dressing rooms. In any regards, the time would not have been effected had Steele gone ahead and instructed Chavez to go to the neutral corner...... ....alot of fightfans dont know this, but when there is a knockdown, there is an appointed hand from the commision outside the ring that starts a count......if the referee has to do something like direct a fighter to a neutral corner, the referee then looks at this appointed hand, and picks up the count that he has and starts the count there at the fallen fighter. For example, Steele could have directed Chavez to the neutral corner, and then looked at the appointed hand who would signal him that say the count was at 5......steele would then have to right away start counting 6,7,8....... .....my point is that if Steele would have took the time to direct Chavez to the neutral corner, his count would not have started at 1 when he was done doing so......he would have picked up the count from the appointed hand outside the ring. Next time you guys see a knockdown where the ref takes the time to do something like direct a fighter to a neutral corner, watch him pick up the count, and not start at 1!
True, but he witnessed all that punishment and kept the fight going until the very end of the 12th. If he thought Taylor was taking too much punishment (which he did), he should have stopped it way earlier. This is a very good point.
The point is : Steele asked Taylor if he wanted to continue. 1) Taylor did not answer and looked to his corner for advise. 2) Taylor looked in terrible physical shape and did not appear ready to go on. In that case, the referee has no other choice to stop the fight. Simple as that.
Your point is good in theory, but the actuality is that refs have to have a strong stomach to take in the violence so up close like that. They're really instructed to let the fight continue as long as the fighter is punching back......and since this fight was so competitive, Steele just could'nt take it upon himself to just halt the fight without a knockdown, with Taylor still game and fighting back.
Do you disagree that if that fight took place nowdays, it would have been stopped way earlier on doctor's advice? I mean Taylor's face was visibly busted up long before the 12th.
If you saw these fight LIVE you could hear the ref saying Taylor took lot's of HARD shot's and to much P and he also say when i see a guy getting beat up IT MY D TO STOP THE FIGHT.So no that wouln't be the case.
I'm not sure that Taylors vision was completely impaired from the swelling, but without a bad cut, I dont believe that nowdays the fight would have been stopped earlier. The only way that a doctor would have stopped it today was to have gone to Taylor and determined that Taylor could'nt see. .......and even then, knowing Lou Duva and his famous theatrics.....he'd have done something in that corner to distract the doctor of fully examining Meldrick Taylor. Alot of Taylor supporters blame Duva for the commotion and that he somehow distracted Meldrick Taylor during the count...... ....but what Duva was actually doing, was going bonkers in that corner yelling at Steele and trying to distract him from his count and yelling that Chavez was'nt in the neutral corner. ....Duva always does those kinds of things to buy time for his fighters. Usually they work, but Steele is a proffesional, and he was'nt going to do what a WWE wrestling referee does and walk to him and say, "huh!" Had Steele deemed Taylor fit to continue, before letting the fight continue, he then would have directed Chavez to the neutral corner, and signalled the fighters to fight. ......but since Steele made his decision that Taylor was'nt fit to continue, those steps were not necessary.
Steele said Taylor took a lot of hard shots and it was too much, but he also said (and obvious to see) that Taylor didn't answer his questions, so he stopped it. Which is why I think much of the blame lies in Lou Duva, regardless of what one thinks (again, I see both sides of the argument) of the stoppage. As hurt as Taylor was, I think he would've verbally responded to Steele if he wasn't looking over at Duva in the corner when Steele was asking him questions. Then Steele wouldn't have stopped it, and Taylor wins via SD. I don't buy the King/Steele alliance theories.
I really do think that Taylor was looking at Duva when Steele was asking him important questions. Obviously none of us really know what was in Taylor's head, but I think Duva's antics backfired on him.