Questions about Chavez-Taylor I.

[rightsideup]

this one is the 90's version of tunney dempsey 2

My intial thoughts were that the fight was stopped too soon. I was in vegas for tyson ruddock 1 and when the corners and fans rioted we started exiting the stadium and I was jogging out discussing the finish with a fan on my left and on my right was meldrick taylor saying that steele was the same ref that robbed him.

There are some good points supporting each view. I believe a refs job is very hard as he holds the fighters safety in his hands. Steele had a tendency to stop fights when he figured the fighter was hurt and alot of people did not agree with tayor chavez and tyson ruddock 1 stoppage's. It was an entertaining fight with razor hurting mike a few times as well.

Then there are other refs that let the fights last too long such as the fellow who would not stop duran moore.

[bojangles1987]

Fight kind of irks me. Taylor was told he couldn't last two more freaking seconds after that? Ugh.

[Scott9945]

Fight kind of irks me. Taylor was told he couldn't last two more freaking seconds after that? Ugh.

Especially since he was one his feet and willing to continue. If Chavez had been playing ping pong with his head with 2 seconds left that is an entirely different story. This respond to the referee crap is subjective and not the absolute rule that fans in favor of this robbery seem to imply.

[SBleeder]

There were 2 seconds left, Chavez wouldn't have landed another punch.

And again, you have no way of knowing this, because fighters are notorious for trying to sneak in shots after the bell has rung.

[Anthony342]

And again, you have no way of knowing this, because fighters are notorious for trying to sneak in shots after the bell has rung.

Okay, fair enough, but also you have no way of knowing that Chavez would've landed another punch either.

[Scott9945]

And again, you have no way of knowing this, because fighters are notorious for trying to sneak in shots after the bell has rung.

A competent referee is always conscious of stopping the action after the final bell. And of course Steele would have been very aware of it if he allowed the fight to continue after the knockdown. And finally, JCC was so far away from a neutral corner there is no possible way the bell wouldn't have rang long before he could get to Taylor.

[The Noose]

The main objective for a professional ref is to do the job correctly. If Steele was so concerned about his "objectives" he would have made sure Chavez stayed in a neutral corner before anything else. You can't pick and choose when it's correct to follow the rules based on when it's convenient in a debate.

True. Good point. I didnt realise Chavez wasnt in a neutral corner, so i wasnt picking and choosing anything to win a debate.

Yet i doubt Steele quickly telling Chavez to get into a neutral corner would have taken 2 seconds. Then again, if Duva was going so frantic because Chavez wasnt in a neutral corner, Taylor would of responded to Steele, and the fight would probably of continued.
What a head fuck!

[Mintcar923]

Why do you think that Steele wasn't aware of the 10 second warning light that comes on during every round of every fight he works?

This is pretty much as no-brainer. You could see Steele was clearly focused on Taylor and didn't appear to be looking at the light in any way, shape, or form. For the sake of argument, even if he had he'd have known it was going on for at least 6-8 seconds if he could tell time. And if that was the case he'd have to be pretty mental to have stopped it, then. Besides, he even claimed numerous times after the fight he wasn't paying attention to the time!

[Scott9945]

This is pretty much as no-brainer. You could see Steele was clearly focused on Taylor and didn't appear to be looking at the light in any way, shape, or form. For the sake of argument, even if he had he'd have known it was going on for at least 6-8 seconds if he could tell time. And if that was the case he'd have to be pretty mental to have stopped it, then. Besides, he even claimed numerous times after the fight he wasn't paying attention to the time!

So in all those final seconds you don't think Steele got even a glimpse of one of those four lights that come on? Every fighter learns to look for them instinctively, and Steele was former lightheavyweight boxer. I'm pretty sure referees do to. As for what he said, I choose not to believe him since I think it was a dishonest stoppage.

[TBear]

Ironic but Steele was once a top referee. Around that time he made a couple questionable calls that I feel ruined him. Another one being the first Tyson-Ruddock stoppage the next year. Got to the point after this series of bad calls that he was booed during the introductions of every fight. I remember the Ring made mention of a fight after this that he stopped way too late, they suggested it was perhaps due to the massive amount of criticism he had been recieving.

But in all fairness to his controversal call, if you look at his record*, he refereed tons of meaningful fights without any controversy.
It is just the bad nights people remember.




*his refereering record I mean-he wasn't a very good pro-boxer(12-4)