Richard Steele's Call on Chavez-Taylor I

[mickey malone]

Real sad for Taylor, because he outclassed Chavez for most of the fight, which i think Steel would have been well aware of. I remember watching the fight and a pal said to me around the 8th, "This guy looks better than SRL," and he wasn't far wrong either.

As for Steel's intervention, well it was one of the harshest i've ever seen but you have to take into consideration the quality of the punches JCC was hitting him with, and to be fair, Taylor looked pretty out of it. With Chavez being known as a strong finisher, it could be argued that Taylor hadn't paced himself, thus leaving him drained of energy for the final round. No doubt about it, Meldrick was in serious trouble and that's what Steel acted upon. As for stopping him, what choice did he have?.. Taylor as an experienced pro knows full well you have to look the ref in the eye, and he didn't do it..

Something did go missing from Taylor after that fight and i'd say that although technically correct, Richard Steel definitely stole a piece of Taylor's heart that night..

[The_Demon]

I think the old saying 'its better too stop a fight a few punches early than a few punches too late' kind of applies here,and taylor failed too answer,giving Steele little choice

[joseph5620]

Real sad for Taylor, because he outclassed Chavez for most of the fight, which i think Steel would have been well aware of. I remember watching the fight and a pal said to me around the 8th, "This guy looks better than SRL," and he wasn't far wrong either.

As for Steel's intervention, well it was one of the harshest i've ever seen but you have to take into consideration the quality of the punches JCC was hitting him with, and to be fair, Taylor looked pretty out of it. With Chavez being known as a strong finisher, it could be argued that Taylor hadn't paced himself, thus leaving him drained of energy for the final round. No doubt about it, Meldrick was in serious trouble and that's what Steel acted upon. As for stopping him, what choice did he have?.. Taylor as an experienced pro knows full well you have to look the ref in the eye, and he didn't do it..Something did go missing from Taylor after that fight and i'd say that although technically correct, Richard Steel definitely stole a piece of Taylor's heart that night..

And Steele knows full well as an experienced ref that he should have done his job correctly. But he didn't do it.

[istmeno]

And Steele knows full well as an experienced ref that he should have done his job correctly. But he didn't do it.

so what you are saying is that you are fine with chavez being robbed of a rightful win,, as the round had not ended, and chavez had him in a state that he was unable to respond to the referee. regardless of how much time was left in the round.

[Scott9945]

so what you are saying is that you are fine with chavez being robbed of a rightful win,, as the round had not ended, and chavez had him in a state that he was unable to respond to the referee. regardless of how much time was left in the round.

This is total BS. Steele knew damn well that Taylor was being distracted by his trainer. And he knew there were just seconds left. You make it sound like Taylor was getting hammered, when he was standing up straight and waiting to resume fighting. Plenty of fighters have been allowed to continue in mid fight while in much worse shape than Taylor was. Rightful win my ass.

[joseph5620]

This is total BS. Steele knew damn well that Taylor was being distracted by his trainer. And he knew there were just seconds left. You make it sound like Taylor was getting hammered, when he was standing up straight and waiting to resume fighting. Plenty of fighters have been allowed to continue in mid fight while in much worse shape than Taylor was. Rightfyou ul win my ass.

Thank you for saving me the time from responding to that BS.

[Scott9945]

Thank you for saving me the time from responding to that BS.

The righteousness of those defending Steele get on my nerves. I get tired of hearing how Steele was just doing his job and Taylor just didn't get it done. This was a judgement call, and the referee used higly dubious judgement to protect the house fighter and cheat Meldrick out of the title.

[istmeno]

This is total BS. Steele knew damn well that Taylor was being distracted by his trainer. And he knew there were just seconds left. You make it sound like Taylor was getting hammered, when he was standing up straight and waiting to resume fighting. Plenty of fighters have been allowed to continue in mid fight while in much worse shape than Taylor was. Rightful win my ass.

you can hold on to that there were only seconds left in the fight argument all you want. but that is just the point, there were seconds left in the round. it was not over. and as far as taylor getting hammered, i think the hospital; report after the fight pretty much proved that. and if taylor was being distracted by his corner, whose fault is that?

as i said earlier, a round lasts a full 3 minutes, not 2:58 seconds, and a fighter is required to be able to defend himself during the full 3 minutes. he failed top respond to the referee on two occassions. the ref did his job. which is to protect the fighter. unfortunately taylor lost a fight where imo he was ahead.

and to be clear, i am not and have never been a chavez fan.

[Scott9945]

you can hold on to that there were only seconds left in the fight argument all you want. but that is just the point, there were seconds left in the round. it was not over. and as far as taylor getting hammered, i think the hospital; report after the fight pretty much proved that. and if taylor was being distracted by his corner, whose fault is that?

as i said earlier, a round lasts a full 3 minutes, not 2:58 seconds, and a fighter is required to be able to defend himself during the full 3 minutes. he failed top respond to the referee on two occassions. the ref did his job. which is to protect the fighter. unfortunately taylor lost a fight where imo he was ahead.

and to be clear, i am not and have never been a chavez fan.

Taylor was exhausted and weary for sure, but at no time was he defenseless. He beat the count and was standing up straight. The opponent was nowhere near a neutral corner. You don't take a champions title away like that. It was unprecedented. The "not responding" criteria just gave Steele an excuse to protect another Don King fighter.

[joseph5620]

The righteousness of those defending Steele get on my nerves. I get tired of hearing how Steele was just doing his job and Taylor just didn't get it done. This was a judgement call, and the referee used higly dubious judgement to protect the house fighter and cheat Meldrick out of the title.

There is no getting around that as far as I'm concerned. You would think Taylor needed oxygen and a stretcher after reading some of the exaggerated comments about his condition following the knockdown.