Richard Steele's Call on Chavez-Taylor I

[IronDanHamza]

My opinion on the matter has always been he should have been allowed to continue. I mean mere seconds? Come on. If it was 30, 20 even possibly 10-15 seconds I would be boarderline about it. But 2 seconds? I have always personally thought it was criminal.

I mean yeah he would never be the same, Chavez took his soul. But atleast he could have a win of Juilio Cesar Chavez on his resume. JMO.

[Thread Stealer]

I can't complain too much given the fact that Taylor didn't verbally respond to Steele's questions. Still, Chavez WAS in the middle of the ring rather than the neutral corner, and Steele did let Tommy Hearns go on against Iran Barkley a couple years earlier when his legs were in worse shape than Taylor's were.

Its one of the biggest crimes in boxing as far as I"m concerned. He basically ruined Taylor's life.

Come on, he didn't ruin Taylor's life. The extent of how much this fight "ruined" Taylor's career is greatly exaggerated too. Another case of HBO's Legendary Nights exaggerating, or straight up lying, for the sake of drama. Taylor had the 2nd best win of his career AFTER the first Chavez fight.

Taylor was going to move up in weight regardless, he was having trouble making 140 lbs. Even if Taylor never takes a bad beating against Chavez, he still would have trouble in that division considering the talent pool around that time, or the quality WWs that were about to rise on the scene. Taylor was always going to have a short stay at the top with his style/size and the WWs around him.

Let's just say Taylor wins this fight, or never even faces Chavez in the first place.

What changes that much?

Taylor still goes up and beats Aaron Davis for the WBA welterweight title. His team for some reason let him fight Terry Norris at 150 despite the fact that Taylor was showing signs of decline in his title defense against Glenwood Brown. Taylor would be beaten by Norris regardless of Taylor being on the downside. Cristano Espana always would've given Taylor hell with his style and range. He was a mandatory, so Taylor had to fight him. Team Taylor obviously wasn't the type to protect Taylor with safe fights. The WW division had fighters like Ike Quartey, Felix Trinidad, stablemate Pernell Whitaker, Espana, Simon Brown, etc...

The Chavez fight took something out of Taylor, but it's not like Taylor was some scrub because of it. He was still a very good fighter, but was also pretty undersized and lacking power at WW.

[Scott9945]

I can't complain too much given the fact that Taylor didn't verbally respond to Steele's questions. Still, Chavez WAS in the middle of the ring rather than the neutral corner, and Steele did let Tommy Hearns go on against Iran Barkley a couple years earlier when his legs were in worse shape than Taylor's were.




Come on, he didn't ruin Taylor's life. The extent of how much this fight "ruined" Taylor's career is greatly exaggerated too. Another case of HBO's Legendary Nights exaggerating, or straight up lying, for the sake of drama. Taylor had the 2nd best win of his career AFTER the first Chavez fight.

Taylor was going to move up in weight regardless, he was having trouble making 140 lbs. Even if Taylor never takes a bad beating against Chavez, he still would have trouble in that division considering the talent pool around that time, or the quality WWs that were about to rise on the scene. Taylor was always going to have a short stay at the top with his style/size and the WWs around him.

Let's just say Taylor wins this fight, or never even faces Chavez in the first place.

What changes that much?

Taylor still goes up and beats Aaron Davis for the WBA welterweight title. His team for some reason let him fight Terry Norris at 150 despite the fact that Taylor was showing signs of decline in his title defense against Glenwood Brown. Taylor would be beaten by Norris regardless of Taylor being on the downside. Cristano Espana always would've given Taylor hell with his style and range. He was a mandatory, so Taylor had to fight him. Team Taylor obviously wasn't the type to protect Taylor with safe fights. The WW division had fighters like Ike Quartey, Felix Trinidad, stablemate Pernell Whitaker, Espana, Simon Brown, etc...

The Chavez fight took something out of Taylor, but it's not like Taylor was some scrub because of it. He was still a very good fighter, but was also pretty undersized and lacking power at WW.

I'm always glad when you respond to this topic. It saves me the trouble of having to post pretty much the same thing. The bottom line is that Taylor wouldn't have taken one more punch if the fight had been allowed to finish.

[Bastian Loc]

I back Steele on this one, it was a good stoppage.

Somebody mentioned how a win would have been so much better for his finances, ****, there isn't enough money in the world that could bring back what Chavez took out of Taylor that night. As far as I'm concerned Taylor was damaged goods after that fight. Yeah, gives Taylor extra money as he sits on his couch starring out a window in his pugilistica induced demensia.

And in Steeles defense, the referees primary job is to ensure that the fighters are looked after. Taylor folded to the canvas after Chavezs bomb, when he got up he looked pretty well ****ed up to me. 6 seconds, 4 seconds or 2 seconds, if Steele would have let that fight continue the next shot might have killed Taylor.

As for the 15 round comment, Taylor never even would have made it out of the 13th round if he was even able to rise from his stool to answer the 13th bell.

Good stoppage by Steele..............Rockin'

I'm always glad when you respond to this topic. It saves me the trouble of having to post pretty much the same thing. The bottom line is that Taylor wouldn't have taken one more punch if the fight had been allowed to finish.

It was 2 more seconds.

Get a grip.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

The stoppage, under Boxing conventions, was completely fair given the circumstances --- whether it was made for fair reasons may be another discussion altogether...

[istmeno]

those saying that taylor should have been allowed to continue, because he was ahead on the cards and there were only 2 seconds left, fail to remember that a round lasts 3 minutes, not 2 minutes and 58 seconds. allowing taylor to continue, after failing to respond to the referee during the round, would have robbed chavez of a rightful victory.

the object is to win on points, or stop your oponnent inside of the FULL 12 rounds, which chavez did.

i had taylor comfortably ahead in that fight, but chavez did what he needed to do in that last round.

[BigStereotype]

Also, it wasn't QUITE the domination everyone makes it out to be. Chavez started out slow, but he really beat Meldrick up in the later part of the fight. I had it scored 7-5 Chavez with the knockdown. It could have easily been 6-6.

[rsf]

it was a good stoppage ,steele asked taylor a question he did not respond properly he could of got hurt .one extra punch in one second could be the killer

[Scott9945]

it was a good stoppage ,steele asked taylor a question he did not respond properly he could of got hurt .one extra punch in one second could be the killer

There would have been no extra punch since Chavez was nowhere near a neutral corner like he was required to be.

[rsf]

There would have been no extra punch since Chavez was nowhere near a neutral corner like he was required to be.

the neutral corner rule is not always followed as it should be , sometimes things go a miss in the heat of the moment . the fact does remain though that steele did ask taylor a question and quite clearly he did not get a suitable response so in that point it was a good stoppage. taylor was not the same fighter after the fight either