Was the Chavez vs Taylor Round 12 Stoppage Good or Bad?

I've never understood people that ***** about this. In NASCAR if a driver leads the entire race then the very last lap someone passes him do people say well he won cause he was ahead the whole race? Taylor took a serious beating. Don't listen to the bias hbo commentary. Steele saw the beating Taylor was getting up close. Not a bad stoppage and taylors trainer jumped on the ring anyways which is against the rules.

 

Its a pretty tough one but Steele only had Taylors safety in mind.
Folks say Steele has no idea how long is left.Wrong,as the red light was lit to show less than ten seconds was left in the round.Either he didnt look,which imo he should of,or he did look but thought Taylor was in too deep to carry on.Secondly,why was Duva distracting his fighter and making him look away from Steele when Taylor should have been concentrating on the refs instructions?When a fighter is in this state of exhaustion one punch can make a huge difference and if you see Taylor today he is already showing signs of serious damage.
All in it would have been great for him to get a deserved decision but i cant blame the ref on this occasion.

 

You all do know that Taylor admitted he was grateful for the stoppage and that he holds nothing against Chavez or the ref. Pretty sure there was a video around here in a similar thread of Taylor saying that. But, to answer the question yes, it was a good stoppage.

 

I think it was justifyable...

Steele didn't know the exact time, and did what he had to do.
He probably would have let the fight continue if he knew that there was only a few seconds left on the clock, but he most likely didn't.

Of course if he had let the fight continue, people would have had discussions of who was the real winner, the guy with the most points looked like hell and could hardly stand on his own feet, while the loser could easily go a couple rounds more.

What I can't grasp is some people here think this is a terrible stoppage (a few seconds before the end of the 12th), while they say Bute vs Andrade should have been (a few seconds after the end). If you're on Taylor's side on this, you surely should be on Bute's side.

 

Tough stoppage but I think he did what he had to do. From his perspective, Taylor didn't respond to his questions (asked are you ok twice) or focus on him during the standing 8 count. Given this, I think he only had one decision to make.

 

Surprised most say it was a bad stoppage. Steele ruled he was in no condition to continue, and that was that.

 

This. :good

 

still, he wasn't the same.

 

I might be a little bieased but i think it was a good stoppage the referees job is to focus on the fighters not teh time even if theres 10 seconds left. What people are saying is that boxers might as well give up on the 12th round if there behind the scorecards because the refereee should give the benefit of the doubt to their opponents. Also, Taylor's face was broken and he was peeing blood from all the damage. I think this is a great example of what educated pressure does. People were seeing a Taylor domination when in reality he was just being flashy but not doing much damage.

 

Steele asked Taylor if he was OK and Taylor did not respond, twice. The ref HAD to stop it since to let it contiune would be to let Chavez take a free shot and a dazzed fighter who had just taken an awful beating.

 

I think the only person to blame here is Duva, the guy told Taylor that to win he had to go out and fight when the round before that he was about to go to the wrong corner and he was clearly ahead. Then during the count he starts talking and distracts Taylor

 

****ing ridiculous.

 

Steele should have been aware of the time, but that's not his main priority. Taylor fell in sections, got back up with the assistance of the ropes, did not look directly at Steele, and failed to respond when Steele asked him twice, "are you alright?" Any referee knows that's the time to stop a fight. Again, Steele should have realized that there were just a few seconds left, and that Taylor would likely not take a single punch more, but that's not the main point of his job. He's supposed to protect the fighters and Taylor had been horribly damaged and showed no signs of being able to continue. He didn't handle the situation perfectly, but he made the right choice.

 

This is my 2 cents worth - If you(as a referee) ask a fighter if he is ok to continue and he can't respond. You don't have authority to continue the fight. As that would be a conflict of interest with the primary responsibility of the ref which is to protect the fighters health.
It a damn shame, but not a bad stoppage.

 

The referee has to judge whether or not to stop the fight based on the condition of the fighter, that should be his only concern. If the same sequence of events had happened either earlier in the 12th or in an earlier round, I doubt there would be any complaints about the fight being stopped.

Taylor had been getting worn down for a number of rounds and taking some hard punishment even in rounds he was winning. Taylor even fell over his own two feet earlier in the round when he missed a wild shot at Chavez, that would have been a big danger sign that he didn't have much left to me. Chavez put him down with a hard knockdown after a lot of punishment, Taylor had to use the ropes to lift himself up and then didn't respond to Richard Steele's question, Steele had no choice after that happened.

I feel sorry for Meldrick because he done well early in the fight to build up a lead but he took a lot of damage to get it and it told later on which is what helped lead to that final round. People need to give Chavez a hell of a lot more credit for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat - he kept believing he could get the stoppage until the very end and he got it. That takes a hell of a lot of self belief.