What's the story of the rematch. I didn't even know about it until I saw a highlight after it was over. I lost track of Taylor after he lost to Espana. He had such a sudden decline. This fight didn't get much hype. I watched a bit of it today & Taylor looked nothing like he did in the first fight. Was it competitive?
A foregone conclusion in some respects. Taylor was never the same after the first Chavez encounter and to be honest Chavez was well past prime by this point. Still, Chavez started with a whole lot more than Taylor ever possessed and the fight played out as expected.
Taylor actually fought well in the early rounds. Chavez was starting to decline but Taylor had slipped much farther. His ability to absorb punishment was minimal. Once Chavez started landing regularly in the middle rounds it was pretty much over.
It was an entertaining bout in which there was a lot more back and forth trading than in the first. Taylor stood his ground for as long as he could, but couldn't prevent the inevitable.
It was a Don King creation to try to boost Chavez's shrinking influence following the Whitaker "draw." It was all "look, the brave warrior is giving a rematch to his toughest foe!" Most knew better. As noted, Taylor did well early when he was on his toes and moving, but once Chavez started getting to him and Taylor started trading, the end was near.
Nobody really brings this fight up, because the first one was so much more memorable AND competitive, but this just reaffirmed what i already knew, M Taylor didnt have the sack, chin, toughness, and overall ability Chavez had, simple as that... With all of the show-boating, and clowning Taylor was doing, you would have thought, Taylor won the first fight, im glad he got slammed, and beat again, weak ass chin and all:yep. If anything at all, why i because a Chavez fan was his destruction of Taylor:good
Another thing I remember about this fight is that Don King said the winner would fight Frankie Randall. King got Randall a shot at Coggi's belt instead and Chavez ended up not fighting Randall, instead keeping the WBC title for quite some time until Oscar De la Hoya won it from him. King wasn't going to risk his meal ticket losing to Randall again.
Underrated fight, Taylor started pretty well but Chavez broke him down in the mid rounds both guys passed their primes but still high level stuff.
