Steele in the taylor/chavez fight

I decry Steele! His actions in the Tyson Ruddock match were even worse.

 

Taylor was still pretty good afterwards. Not the same, but still of high enough quality to move up in weight to beat a good undefeated world champ in Aaron Davis.

He just took too much punishment in general. This fight was the worst beating he took physically, but far from the only one.

 

Compare Steele's stoppage with Byrd's stoppage tonight! Byrd should be ashamed.

 

It was a good stoppage imo, I agree with everything Widow_Maker said on this topic. It was so very close to the end of the fight, but he had no clue on knowing how much time was left in the fight. On top of that, Steele asked several times if Taylor was able to continue with the fight and Taylor never showed signs that he was responsive and aware of where he was. Great awesome fight and a rematch should've taken place, but if you consider Taylors health a rematch might not have been a great idea.

 

The rematch took place about 3 to 4 years too late. By 1994, Taylor was viewed by everyone as a shot fighter, even Lou Duva had publicly said he didn't want to work with Taylor anymore because of concern for his health after the Espana fight, and Chavez had faded some as well. Taylor being competitive and even winning after the first 5 rounds was a surprise to many.

The IBF had demanded a rematch for 1990/91 I remember reading in a magazine at the time, but it fell through for whatever reason.

 

Steele doesnt need to be forgivin! He made the right call. Taylor was dead!
Too bad the referee in the Butte Vs Andrade fight didnt have Steele's balls! He stole the fight from Andrade!:tired

 

anybody knows the scorecards thru the 11?

 

I don't think that Taylor was ruined solely because of the enormously bad decision. The fight itself and the punishment he took ruined him maybe even more.

Maybe it's a combination of factors: The decision ruined him mentally and the fight itself took a lot out of him physically.

Sad story.

Isn't he now a personal conditioning coach or something?

 

One of the best post in years on the general forum.

 

A rematch did'nt happen soon because the Duva's who managed and promoted Taylor, did'nt want any part of Chavez at 140 lbs.
After the Chavez fight, Taylor immediately moved up to 147 lbs.

......the Duvas wanted Chavez to follow them there, because they knew that Taylor was a naturally bigger fighter and he'd likely carry the weight better there than Chavez.

In fact, when Pernell Whitaker moved up from lightweight, he faced and beat Raphael Pineda for one of the 140 lbs titles, everyone thought that Whitaker who had just moved up to 140 lbs, would be looking to challenge the best p4p fighter in the world JC Chavez who was the top dog at 140 lbs (this is a little known fact), but instead, the Duva's guided Pernell up to 147 lbs and away from a Chavez fight there.

The Duvas, later confessed that they did'nt want either Taylor of Whitaker to face Chavez at 140 lbs, and thus the move up to 147 lbs for both Taylor and Whitaker!

There you have it, a Chavez-Taylor rematch was'nt made right away because the Duva's did'nt want it!

 

I was kind of surprised that Taylor was able to get down to 140 in 1994 after moving up and spending so much time at 147. Of course he had little big fight options elsewhere, but Taylor looked fairly filled out at 147. He had that stocky frame and was said to have weight problems at 140.

All things considered, he didn't fight that bad in the rematch. Much better than nearly anyone expected.

 

Though Taylor had visibly declined by then (those idiot Duvas, fed Meldrick to Terry Norris at 154 lbs.atsch) he was ultra motivated to finally get his rematch vs Chavez......

If I remember correctly, Chavez was like a 3-1 or 4-1 favorite to beat Taylor......

Taylor actually looked great for about the first 4 rounds......but pay attention to the Chavez corner during that time.....there was no urgency there.....they were cool, calm, and collected......

.....around the 5th and 6th round, Chavez started landing thumping shots on Taylor, and the further the fight went, Chavez kept pressing the pedal and was just landing at will.

.......turned out that the Chavez team expected Taylor to start strong, and rather than try to match Taylor's speed head on.....by design, they let Taylor shoot his wad, and then went to work on him.


I'm a huge Chavez fan......but looking at the Chavez-Taylor rematch in hindsight, I feel terribly bad for Meldrick Taylor.
Taylor was a much better fighter, to have deserved to get toyed like that vs Chavez.
The Duva's did an absolute atrocious job of directing Taylor's career after the damage that he had suffered against Chavez in their first fight.
Its unbelievable to me that they matched him straight up against a destroyer like Norris at 154 lbs.