richard steeles decison

These discussions over Chavez-Taylor I are like a broken record, and I don't care to get into it again. However, I'd like to pose a question ahead to time since I know it will come up.

People always say "Steele was in King's pocket".

Please someone tell me this bad history of Steele favoring King fighters before this fight. The controversial (bad) Tyson-Ruddock stoppage came a year AFTER Chavez-Taylor I, and also, Steele was the one who deducted 2 points from Chavez in the first Randall fight for low blows. Chavez ended up losing the fight, title, and his official undefeated record by one point.

The only one I can think of before Taylor-Chavez I where Steele may have favored a King fighter was Tyson-Bruno I, but Steele let both Tyson and Bruno get away with fouling regardless.

 

OH NOOOO not this again. Richard Steele is very cautious with his fights. Meldrick SHOULD have responded to him but instead , did not.
He should have told him he was ok and ready , keeping his hands up and walking toward Steele to prove that.

 

the decision was OK for me, people say that the stoppage was wrong because taylor was schooling chavez and in the last 10 seconds of the bout he got dropped, if the ref let the fight continue chavez could have land a big right hand and probably leave taylor in a worse situation than he is today or maybe taylor would have survived the round and win the fight,who knows?but for me the stoppage was OK. if taylor was killed that night all the people will be saying "damn, why didnt he stop the fight"or some other BS that people normally say in that kind of situation.

 

Steele was justified in stopping the fight, if I remember correctly, when Steele asked him if he was alright he didnt answer back and refused to look at the ref, instead was looking to his corner to get how much time was left in the round. Taylor was in very bad shape, and all it would take is one punch from Chavez to do serious damage to him. Steele was just doing his job, and a big part of his job is making that decision wether or not a fighter could continue or not, and he made the judgement Taylor couldnt.

 

It isn't his job to be a time keeper. Taylor didn't respond... end of fight.

What was he supposed to do? Protect Taylor until the bell? Or allow him to get hit at least one more time? We all saw what awful shape Taylor was in after that fight... one more shot might have killed him. Then what? Steele would be bashed as the ref who made the awful decision to let a fighter continue when he wasn't responsive.... and got him killed.

 

Steele is well known for stopping fights when others think it should have gone on . Steele was a fighter himself and if I'm not mistaken , he was a belt holder:huh so I think he just has a feeling when a fighter has had too much. And he is quick to pull the trigger.

 

The only reason that stoppage is Controversial is because there were two seconds left. If there had been a minute left in the fight when Steele stopped it, nobody would be talking about the stoppage today.

 

steele is kinda of inconsistent when it comes to stopping fights, sometimes he stops them very fast, other times the fighter whose doing the beating has to literally beg him to stop it. I guess it depends on how he feels atm.

 

Taylor could not respond proper to Steele within the alotted time - Steele did the right thing.

But props to Meldrick for fighting his ass off and and fighting like a man, I remember someone saing on legendary nights that Taylor wasnt gonna run from Chavez and give him that satisfaction. Downright warrior.

 

On a diffrent note....

Has anyone here seen or remember their second fight??

It was an awesome pitched battle with an all time great round in round 6, where Mt really showed how much heart he really had, taking everything JCC had and dishing out plenty of his own... Bth guys may have been a bit past it but overall it was a great fight and I recommend it for anyone's fight collection.

 

He shouldn't have stopped it!!

Chavez was getting his ass whooped the whole fight!!!!

Taylor was taking a beating, but was dishing one out too!

With two seconds left on the clock, the fight should have continued, Chavez would not have got off a fight ending punch!

That is a loss for Chavez although on paper it's a win!

It is sad that Meldrick Taylor was punched ******ed in that fight, and never recovered but I think he deserved those two seconds for all he did..

 

taylor looked like he'd been put through a meat grinder...stoppage was ok...

 

One of the worst stoppages of all time. It was an outrage then, and it's still and outrage nearly 20 years later.

 

Taylor did not die because of the stoppage, thus whether you agreed with it or not, by definition it was not one of the worst stoppages of all-time.