MELDRICK TAYLOR: A Great Fighter?

could have been.

 

Should of avoided Chavez. He had the fastest hands I have ever seen.

 

He was a great fighter! He was a talented and gifted boxer who had a fighting heart and that's why his greatness only lasted for a short period. He was Sugar Ray Leonard skill wise with Arturo Gatti's heart.

 

Not sure , even before he met JCC Taylor still had other issues .
1 he may have had fast hands but he had lousy defense and would get into slugfest quite often when he could have used his speed to box, George Benton would tell him on many occasions just to box , which on many occasion taylor would ignore.

2 Taylor was a heavy party guy from what I hear he loved to party way too much between fights.

these two thing would have caught up to sooner or later anyway , just that when he fought JCC it was sooner then he thought.

 

In his brief prime(before Chavez ruined him) yes he was a great fighter. Just look at the way he handled McGirt. Buddy was an excellent fighter in his own right, and Taylor took him apart in a one sided fight and made McGirt look like he was NOTHING.

A prime Taylor would dominate the current crop at 140.

 

He was good if not great.

 

Now THATS going overboard. Taylor was talented as hell, but skillwise he was no Leonard. Ray could punch, something Taylor couldnt do. And Leonard was better defensively, and was a MUCH better thinker. Handspeed wise Ray was damn near just as fast as Mel too.

 

Should of avoided Chavez?, he had that fight won till the bull**** stoppage.

 

Buchanan's career wasn't killed against Duran, he simply lost and his career was for the most part overshadowed. He was still a great fighter for sure, and proved it on other occasions. De Jesus wasn't ruined by Duran either, he was more or less made by him to be honest, though he was also a top notch fighter. I wouldn't as easily call him great as I would Buchanan though, even though he had the skills.

As for Meldrick, he didn't have a great career, but in his prime he'd have been one of the hardest to deal with for any fighter.

 

Could have been great.

 

Agreed.

 

Yeah, Buchanan was still a top contender for a couple years afterwards.

He should've got a rematch, but Duran's management avoided it.

 

Boo Fuken Hoo! We have heard this story before. If he was meant to be great he could have made a point in the rematch. But instead got knocked the **** out.

 

The rematch 4 years later?

Taylor had deteroriated a lot by then. Chavez had deteroriated too.

It would've been nice for Taylor's pride to win the rematch, but that fight took place 3 to 4 years too late.