Meldrick Taylor

[Disturbed]

Lets talk about the guy. What are your thoughts about him? How high do you rank him? Any fantasy matches that you think would be amazing to see?

I dont know much about Taylor. Seen the legendary match between him and Chavez and the "Legendary Nights" documentary, great piece.

Sad what happened to him. 2 seconds from glory and that fight ruined him, he took bad damage there. And he kept fighting, some how the comissions let him to continue. I was just completely shocked when I watched the legendary nights episode on him and they showed footage of him later on. They compared it to and old interview when he talked normally, then a new one... He was badly punch drunk, couldnt understand what he was saying at all. It was shocking and showed that his brain indeed had taken a lot of damage. It was a crime for them to let him continue

Anyways, been watching some older fights in the last few days and wanted to make some highlight videos. Just saw his fight against Luis Garcia. Some savage exchanges and man does he have some hand speed! Entertaining stuff, want to make a highlight video of him some day now

But what is your opinion on the guy? I dont have much to say about him since I simply dont know much about him. But im interested

I wonder how he would do against todays top fighters. He was a very fast, entertaining and good fighter, also olympic gold winner.

[StarshipTrooper]

Lots of talent but couldn't bust an egg with a hammer.

[ShoulderRoll]

He had some of the fastest hands you'll ever see. Threw blistering combinations, mixing punches up beautifully to both the head and body.

His fatal flaw was that he liked to mix it up too much instead of throwing then getting out.

In my opinion he had earned the right to finish out the first Chavez fight given how well he performed that night. And had it been allowed to go to the cards he would have had the honor of being the first man to hand Julio a loss.

[Anthony342]

Yeah, but Richard Steele felt it wasn't necessary for Chavez to lose until the first Frankie Randall fight, where his taking away of 2 points from low blows gave Randall a one point win on one of the scorecards for a split decision win.

[StarshipTrooper]

Yeah, but Richard Steele felt it wasn't necessary for Chavez to lose until the first Frankie Randall fight, where his taking away of 2 points from low blows gave Randall a one point win on one of the scorecards for a split decision win.

By the time the Randall fight rolled around the spotlight was already on Steele for favoring Don King fighters. He didn't have any choice at that point but to play it straight or risk bringing the heat down on him.

[yngwie]

The referee doesn't have to stop a fight (or not) based on how much time is left, Taylor was really hurt and the stoppage was good, but he was really unlucky that night.
Anyways, Taylor was a great talent, won the olympic gold at 17 years old, back then he was known already as a tough and talented teenager from Philadelpia who had a great left hook and was extremely fast.
He was a good body puncher, he had a great chin, an awesome combination puncher, but he was too brave for his own good and even with his great foot and handspeed he had the tendency of going into exchanges all the time, with his lack of ko power that put him in a lot of wars.
His fight with Howard Davis was a chessmatch and some of the fastest hands you can see in a ring, his fight against Buddy McGirt was his best performance and his fight against Chavez was his best fight, after that fight, he was never the same, Chavez was the kind of guy who could take something out of you during a fight.

[Anthony342]

By the time the Randall fight rolled around the spotlight was already on Steele for favoring Don King fighters. He didn't have any choice at that point but to play it straight or risk bringing the heat down on him.

Yep, too bad the judges didn't feel the same way as Chavez should've also lost to Whitaker and no way the first Randall fight should have been that close. Not saying it was a shut out, but Randall definitely won by more than 1 point, especially with that knockdown. They need to start banning judges like that, like the one that gave Canelo a 118-110 win over Golovkin, Adelaide Byrd or the one who gave Holyfield the nod in the first fight with Lewis. That's why this crap continues, no punishment, like these cops that keep getting acquitted for shooting innocent, unarmed people.

[rightsideup]

i met him briefly as the fans exited after tyson rud****s ending we talked about the ref being the common to both his fight and this one.
his condition today is sad if some of speed could have been adapted to defense i am sure his life would have turned out better

[Disturbed]

It's a shame he didnt have great power, obviously he could hurt people in the ring (as most boxers can in some way) but I imagine him with more power would have been pretty damn great. Been watching couple of his fights again, damn when he throws those ridiculously fast combinations its just beautiful to watch.

I agree that he indeed was hurt in the last seconds of the Chavez fight but damn do I feel bad for him for the glory being lost just by 2 seconds like that. He had a great performance in the fight

What do you guys think, if he would have won that Chavez fight, how different would his career been? or do you think that it might have necessarily not been better?

[Anthony342]

Probably been better, possibly even been undisputed at 140 at one point briefly. Maybe if he got that well deserved win against Chavez, he wouldn't have continued to chase that glory until 2002.