HBO Completely Silent during the Last Minute Of Chavez Taylor

Everyone here has seen the fight countless times and I'm not sure if anyone notices the complete silence in the last minute from the HBO crew. The last few sentences said before the silence are from Jim Lampley, which are "It doesn't appear at this moment that Chavez has the stuff to get it done", "More pawing than punching now, at a time when he needs the best." and "Another solid left hook by Meldrick Taylor." Then it's complete silence until Larry Merchant says a minute later, "If He gets up he probably wins the fight." The last minute of the round were filled with incredible action and I can't believe there is no commentary to it. Does anyone have any idea what the deal with that is? Were these guys in so much shock that they didn't know what to say? Was it technical problems? It's very rare that they just leave complete silence during a fight especially for so long. I get the feeling that they had taken there headphones off or something because when Merchant gets back on he sounds winded and then of course Lampley starts yelling right after they stop the fight. What do you think happened?

Comments (4)

LA_2_Vegas

can't say for sure but I think it was the fight.....I don't know if you can build to a greater crescendo than that...when fights develop with the ebb and flow that bout had, it makes sense why they'd sit there speechless and only call what was necessary....this is when they used to enjoy being at the fights there are other versions for that fight you might want to check out if you haven't already. I think there is an ABC version with Alex Wallau and Dan Dierdorff...they were a little more excitable going down the stretch

14y ago

ringer

Sometimes fights are so good that even the commentary crew gets absorbed into the drama unfolding, and slacks off from providing "play by play". It happens quite often during great fights.

14y ago

DoubleGRuiz

Huh? The stoppage has nothing to do with the commentators being silent for the last minute of the fight unless you're saying they knew he was about to be robbed and were so disgusted they were at a loss for words.

14y ago

Alpha_amp_Omega

There was silence because that was the most devastating, insulting robbery of a fighter who gave his heart in a fight ever. That fight bothers me more than any other and Taylor was robbed of the greatest victory of his life, and that changed his life forever. Stopping a fight with 2 seconds left and the opposing fighter is 20+ feet away is abhorrent...Chavez could not have made it to Taylor to hit him no matter what with that much time left. Taylor won that fight and was robbed of the greatest moment of his life, period. I cannot even stand watching that anymore. As much as I respect him, JCC got the brakes beat off of him for 9-10 out of 12 rounds and did not deserve that victory whatsoever.

14y ago