I just finished watching the 6th round of Chavez/Taylor II and it was spectacular! How come more people don't talk about that round? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNxHtOUO6GY
It's a gem. Good call, Trey. To be honest I think the entire fight is a bit underrated. Taylor was doing good until he just wore out. It didn't have the dramatic finish of the first one and with the defnitive result the rematch just gets swept under the rug, but its really quite a cracker of a fight
Thanks. And to think Taylor was thought to be shot after the first fight 4 years previous. We can't even make an argument about Taylor being a fighter who's career would have been different "IF". He fought the guys he fought and one of those guys just happened to be the guy who put his career into a tailspin. It wasn't Richard Steele. If anything, it was Lou Duva letting Meldrick continue to fight. That's if you really want to point fingers. Richard Steele may have robbed him of his moment of glory, but his career was going to be in the balance whether he won that fight or not. The damage was already done.
I don't think Taylor's career would've changed much if he had beaten Chavez, or even if he'd never faced him. Taylor goes to 147 after having some problems making 140, and the talent pool there is too deep. Taylor was too small and not a big enough puncher to fight the way he did. Team Taylor cashed out on Taylor with the Norris fight IMO.
Glenwood Brown was a good, strong power puncher and Taylor handled him. Didn't he also beat Aaron "Superman" Davis? Another good solid fighter. I think he could have competed. Whitaker went up there and competed.
Well, he did compete at a high level at WW, just not for very long. The Davis fight was probably Taylor's 2nd best win, and I liked the way he rallied from two KDs to beat Brown. The talent pool was about to become really deep at WW within 2 to 3 years. Quartey, Whitaker, Trinidad. I think Taylor would've had his hands full with Simon Brown. Espana was always going to be a very tough stylistic matchup for the short and stocky Taylor. I don't see Taylor lasting too long at the highest level at 147, Chavez or not. It's not like his management was the protective type.
Well no, but stylewise Whitaker wasn't like him at all either. Whitaker beats him, but Taylor would give him plenty of troubles.
I was actually thinking along the lines of responding to the protest that Taylor couldn't move up & fight his way to the top at 147, by using Whitaker as an example of success from a lower weightclass. Whitaker's class overcame any size issues at 147, but I agree with the point that Taylor's wouldn't. He wasn't nearly as great as Whitaker & it would've told. Taylor was a world-class operator, & he deserved his shot at the best doubtless, but the guy is just massively over-rated nowadays because of that fight with Chavez.
I think that has a lot more to do with styles than "greatness". Chavez never amounted to anything above 140 either. In fact Taylor had better quality wins at welter. The more any boxer moves up in weight the less they can afford to get hit. Every fighter will find a ceiling, the defensive types will typically be able to go higher though.
Overrated? What's overrated about Taylor? He fought the top guys; he fought good guys when he moved up and he had the heart and talent. Is he overrated in the sense that he did not fight enough tough guys?
