If Meldrick Taylor had not fought Julio Caesar Chavez, would he have continued to greatness?

No, because once got up to 147, he would get exposed. HIs skillset, while good, wasn't as strong as many figured.

 

In my humble opinion…no …I don’t think he would have gone on to greatness…when i watch Meldrick Taylor…I see a super talented fighter with flaws ..I look at Meldrick Taylor the same way I look at Shane Mosley

 

I’ve always been under the mindset that the Terry Norris fight ruined him more so than the Chavez fight. And pushing for that match was terrible mismanagement on the part of his people. Meldrick had some brief success when moving up to welter following the chavez loss. I remember watching on HBO the night he completely took apart Davis for the WBA title. It was the same night my brothers fiancé and her father died in a plane crash but I won’t get sidetracked on that.. it would have been more prudent for Meldrick to go after Simon Brown or Hector Camacho than to ride to 154 where he clearly wasn’t built for. As it was Meldrick had a pretty damn good career. Olympic medalist. Two division champ. Wins over Aron Davis, Glenwood Brown, and Buddy McGirt. He probably could have gone unbeaten a bit longer and won over some lesser notables had it not been for the misfortune of the Chavez defeat

 

I always thought this: Duva knew Mel was damaged goods and the end was near as far as getting big money fights so he cashed out Taylor in the Norris fight.
Meldrick was a hell of a fighter especially at lightweight- he beat Primo Ramos who TWO fights latter knocked out the number one lightweight contender- FRANKIE RANDALL- in two rounds.
Hell in his second year he took on Howard Davis getting a draw.

I think Meldrick had two things working against him: his lack of power and he was too easy to hit considering how fast and athletic he was.

 

Fair

 

Top answer. In the end, Taylor would have ended up getting kod and losing eventually, before too long.

 

I have watched boxing religously for over 50 years & do not think i have seen a boxer with faster hands than Taylor.He could throw a 5-6 punches in like 2-3 seconds.His biggest mistake was fighting the toughest man in boxing.

 

I have nearly finished watching Taylor's entire career, which I have covered on my Facebook page.

IF Taylor had never met Chavez at 140, he becomes the Champion of the class and runs it until his weight forces him to move up or he likely loses a competitive decision to his former Olympic teammate, Pernell Whitaker. Coggi, nor Mayweather, nor Camacho, nor Garza, nor Pineda, nor anyone else is beating him until about 1993 or 1994, when Randall represents a serious threat because of his size, right hand power, and Tayor's inevitable physical decline.

There was a real possibility that Taylor would move up to 147 before he ever got to Whitaker or Randall, however. And if he did, he was always going to struggle with bigger men and would eventually falter. However, even after Chavez apparently "ruined" him, Taylor was still capable of becoming "the man" at welterweight. In fact, all he needed was a McGirt rematch to accomplish it. They were #1 and #2 in 1992. Without the Chavez loss, I think there is a little more life to his welterweight run but he ends up a back-end contender. Either that or he boils back down to 140 like he did in actuality and maybe loses competitively to Randall or Tszyu. I think a good right handed puncher eventually gets Taylor. From there he fights while he fades out of contention. Not as sharply as after the Chavez rematch but not much differently.

Personally, I think the initial Chavez loss is overstated. It took wind out of his sails, undoubtedly, but his hard sparring, poor management (they paired him with puncher after puncher), "Philly mindset", and his lack of physical strength were always going to do him in. The Norris fight may have been more devastating than the Chavez defeat. He was never that soundly defeated elsewhere, at least while at the world level.

All things considered, he's one of the best junior welterweights I've seen.

 

Taylor decline started with Chavez and was finished by Norris. He still won a world title between those two bouts with a win over Aaron Davis. Davis had knocked out Mark Breland a few fights before his fight with Taylor

 

Meldrick was a glorious talent but I think like Don Curry, for example, he had certain flaws in his style, mentality and stamina that were his undoing and would probably prevented him from having a long career anyway. It is worth remembering that the Chavez fight was a once in a life time battle that could of ruined any fighter who took that level of punishment. Taylor clearly had guts and the ability to take a punch to go 12 with Chavez. However I think certain fighters can go the well several times in their careers while others only have one life or death struggle in them physically.

I never understood if Meldrick was trained to use his boxing skills and then just ignored his corner when he got in a punch up or if his training team encouraged that side of his nature to make him more exciting and marketable. Meldrick as never KO'd clean (as far as I know?) so he must have had a reasonable chin, he seemed to get stopped more from accumulated punishment. So if he had focused on his boxing and with some careful matchmaking I feel he could have avoided a brutal beating for a while and extended his career. I don't see him as intrinsically fragile as some do, how many other fighters would have survived Julio's bombardment for 12 rounds that night? It is a pretty small group IMO. I think perhaps his lack of discipline and ability to adapt strategically in a fight let him down.

Looking at that era of Light Welters (without counting Chavez and I maybe slightly off with my time line here) but I see fights against other champs Rafael Pineda, Héctor Camacho, Greg Haugen, Garza & Coggi as winnable if he is on peak form. I don't feel any of these fights, if he wins, make him an ATG but he would almost certainly have been the man at LW if he unified. I sort of seeing him doing a Pernell Whitaker at Lightweight and unifying so his performances and dominance are significant even if the opponents are not necessarily all superstars. If he beat Chavez I do see him losing a rematch. Or if for whatever reason he beat Chavez and there was not rematch then I could see him picking up a surprise loss to any of those listed above simply due to the beating vs Chavez. Alternatively he beats Chavez and immediately vacates and goes looking for another superstar fight, which after the Julio beatdown may end in disaster for Taylor.

If he didn't fight Chavez and so doesn't have the wear and tear from that fight I feel he may have a chance against Whitaker at Light Welter simply as far as work rate if Pernell is showboating or coasting as he sometimes did. Or possibly it is a clash between two unified champs, Pernell at Lightweight moving up to Meldrick's unified LW title and he gets his superstar legacy clash which is a pick em' and would entail significantly less damage even if Taylor lost.

Whatever happened in that theoretical match once Taylor moves up to WW he would still have a possible Chavez showdown at that weight, in fact he maybe seen as a better target for Julio that Whitaker. Strong possibility Julio can win that one. There could also be a Whitaker rematch as Pernell moves up. If Taylor holds his WW title a bit longer, content to make defences without any dangerous clashes there are far too many young and dangerous punchers waiting in the wings with Simon Brown and later Golden Boy, Tito and Quartey who could all inflict a savage defeat similar to the Norris fight. The difference would be that it would be a career ending defeat after a successful run that may have included a unified title at Light Welter and a possible win over Whitaker (or successful trilogy) which makes his career overview look much stronger.

A win over Whitaker in this parallel universe would push Taylor into ATG contention (as would have a Chavez win), however it would also depend on what happens in a rematch and if Taylor retires at the right time. I see a possibility he goes on a Roy Jones style KO loss run against any of the young guns listed above which could weaken his resume and cancel out his earlier success.

 

I don't think he and Whitaker would have ever fought. They were stablemates for a long time (up to and past Chavez - Taylor i believe) but over and above that they were good friends. Even when not stablemates my memory is that nobody was talking about them fighting due to their closeness so Taylor probably would have been safe on that front.

I think Taylor was one of those guys who would never have reached great. Fair chance he may have knocked on the door but i think he would have fallen short. I think you have him summed up extremely well.

 

Thanks very much! Intersting info as well, I was not aware of that!

 

I always thought well before Taylor entered the ring against
Chavez he got hit too much against the 2nd tier competition
he faced on his way up. He seemed to want to trade to often,
or "Waiting around for the receipt" as my old coach would say,
instead of getting his in, and not being their for the receipt, which
he certainly had the gift of hand and foot speed to do. He
had defensive liabilities well before the Chavez fight. Chavez
simply exposed them.

At his best he wasn't a great puncher, depended
more on his volume instead of power. As he went up in
weight this probably would've become a bigger issue.
And it did.
To sum it up Taylor's style of fighting, his liabilities defensively,
his lack of dynamic power to go with the dynamic speed, his
lack of height and reach advantages, that may have forced
him to fight the way that he did. I believe Chavez simply
got to him first.
His career was almost pre-ordained to be short but exciting.

 

Taylor spent several days in the hospital after being stopped by Chavez. Doctors who tended to Taylor said his condition arriving at the hospital was the worst they had seen of a fighter who had arrived concious. Taylor had a broken orbital bone and internal damage to his organs. Taylor urinated blood for days.
How was a man with this type of physical damage allowed back into a ring to fight just 6 months after that beatdown?

I've always blamed Main Events and the Duva's who managed and guided Meldrick Taylor's career.
A fighter needs a good time off away from the gym after sufering that type of a beating, but Taylor was back in the gym within weeks and back to fighting within 6 months against tough competition.
Matching Taylor up against a monster at Junior middleweigh in Terry Norris was a criminal act imo by Taylor's management team.

When Taylor needed time off and soft touches to get back into the swing of things, the the Duva's went about business with Taylor as if the Chavez beatdown had never happened.
Just sad.

 

BINGO!

Meldrick Taylor simply ran into an absolute physical prime Julio Cesar Chavez.
Defensive wizards kryptonite is usually facing fighers faster than they are so I wonder how a match between Taylor and Whitaker would have played out.