I come close to crying just about every time I see this on HBO. Does anybody know how he is doing these days?
incredible show
Taylor was one hell of a fighter.
TTT
It says on the vid that Steele has since retired, but I'm pretty sure that he is still active.
Tylor was such a great fighter and was just a few seconds from winning the fight of his life. Man I was pissed when Steele stopped that fight.
It is one thing to win a fight like that and go on to living your life in the condition he is in, you know at least you won the big fight and then there is the flip side to where you lose the big fight and end up living life in the condition he is in. All the what if's, if only I could have got through the round, etc....
Man, I feel bad for him.
i loved meldrick and sweet pea whitaker
"I don't think Lampley ackowledged Chavez ladding a punch until the 8 th round when they couldn't figure out why Taylor's face was swollen."
So true. Taylor ended up with a broken eye socket and was pissing out blood after the fight, but to hear the commentators tell it Chavez hardly landed a shot.
["It says on the vid that Steele has since retired, but I'm pretty sure that he is still active."]
The Legendary Nights series was done in 2002 or 2003, so naturally its not up to date. Steele did come back but doesnt really get big matches to ref, so he's not been as visible.
["Does anybody know how he is doing these days?"]
How is Meldrick doing? I guess as well as you can with brain damage. Last I read, three or four years ago, he was still fighting occasionally on the chickenshit circut. Very sad.
Legendary Nights was a great series, but this ep really bothered me. For dramas sake, it makes Steele, the controversial figure in the fight, look like the only guy who could see Chavez's edge in the fight. Its simply not true.
Chavez was never not landing solid punches, its just that he was being outworked. The HBO commentators were blinded by Meldrick's flash and pizazz. By the middle rounds, you could start to tell who's punches mattered. It was just a question of wether Taylor could take it for 12 rounds. He couldnt.
Though it peeved me at the time, in hindsight, Steele did the right thing. The rules arent "If the man is unresponsive (or distracted by his blimp of a cornerman) and there are five seconds left, let the fight go on." If you dont respond quickly, regardless of time, the fight is over.
That fight ruined Taylor
Sad part of the game.
I am still up in air as to whether Calzaghe did almost same to Lacy, in a bout that shoulda been stopped in late rounds.
"Though it peeved me at the time, in hindsight, Steele did the right thing. The rules arent "If the man is unresponsive (or distracted by his blimp of a cornerman) and there are five seconds left, let the fight go on." If you dont respond quickly, regardless of time, the fight is over"
agree 1000%
also chavez can cause a tremendous amount of damage in very little time, not much room for error with him
The one judge, ROth I believe, and Lampley really showed their lack of boxing comprehension in that fight.
Was Taylor landing more punches? Yep, but you can't really be said to be dominating someone, or to quote that judge, giving them "A boxing lesson" when you are getting busted up round after round.
Steele made the right call. He asked him twice "Are you ok? You ok?" Taylor didn't respond, therefore, whether 2 seconds left, or two minutes, the fight was finished.
If that same scenario had played out at the very start of the 12th round or end of the eleventh, there would be no controversy. Any other call than the one Richard Steele made, while heart breaking for Taylor and his fans, would have been robbing CHavez.
He beat Taylor up to the point where he could no longer fight, and did it within the given time limits.
it would be hard to look right in taylors face and think hes ok to duke it out with chavez
In his prime Chavez was an incredibly punishing fighter, it's a shame to see what has happened to Meldrick.
He destroyed Taylor's eye socket, busted his jaw and some ribs. Plus his stomach had to be pumped due to the (I believe it was) 2pints of blood he'd swallowed from the broken jaw. Despite this, Lampley hardly gave Chavez a round.
Pro boxing isn't just punches landed. It's scored on "effective aggression". Chavez' punches clearly were more effective than Taylor's.
Funny thing was that HBO had the live rights but ABC (because Meldrick was from that Olympic class) had the delayed broadcast rights. Two separate crews watching the same fight. According to HBO's crew, Taylor had hardly lost a round. ABC's crew had it very close... as in it could go either way. (That's how I'd scored it up to then too btw)
I remember talking to friends who didn't really know boxing but had seen it on HBO and they all felt Taylor had been robbed. Those who watched the ABC broadcast didn't feel that way nearly as much as the HBO viewers did. In fact my girlfriend's father said "Man, I'd heard he got robbed but after I saw it I thought that knockdown won it for Chavez anyway." Just shows you how the announcing can sway opinions I guess.
For the record I'd also like to say that Meldrick's fight with Terry Norris was probably more punishing that his fight with Chavez. He was a smaller 140lb'er moving up to fight a fast, big, 154lb'er who could KO men his own size with one punch. He beat Taylor like he'd impregnated his underaged baby sister. Ugly, one sided fight.