Real Steele – The MeldrickTaylor vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Affair
By: José A. Maldonado, MFA
Two seconds. What can you do in two seconds? By the time you finish this sentence, two seconds will have already passed. In fact, it probably took less time for your computer to load this page. Take a look around the room you’re in. See the door? Think you can make it there in two seconds? As members of a society run by time, we are all well aware of the constraints placed upon us by the clock, which is why in sports, some of the most celebrated moments are feats that seem to defy time itself. Cal had just four seconds and a prayer to beat Stanford in one of college football’s most famous endings simply known as The Play. The Soviet Union was given three additional seconds to shatter the United States’ dreams at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. In boxing, this miniscule amount of time can mean the difference between the beginning of glory and the end of a career.
This week will mark the 22nd anniversary of the initial encounter between Meldrick Taylor and Julio César Chávez, a classic slugfest that took place on March 17, 1990 in front of a sold-out crowd at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. It was billed as “Thunder and Lightning” owing to the styles the two brought into the ring. It matched two undefeated fighters, one primed for stardom and the other carrying an entire nation’s hopes on his shoulders. What resulted was an all-time battle that is argued over to this day within boxing circles. Yet what is remembered most is not what the combatants did, but what the third man in the ring decided to do.
Hailed as Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year for 1990, Chávez-Taylor I is a cultural milestone. If you were around at the time and followed sports, most likely you heard about this fight. Having delivered a masterful performance, befuddling the ever-charging Chávez and outwitting him at every turn, Taylor was clearly winning and on his way to dethroning the seemingly indestructible 68-0 champion. Taylor only needed to survive the final three minutes and he would go on to win the WBC and IBF light welterweight titles in an era when these belts still meant something. With under a minute to go, however, Chávez suddenly turned the tide, cornering Taylor and delivering a terrific right hand that dropped the former US Olympic Gold Medalist. What ensued was engrained into the memory of every boxing fan who has ever seen the fight footage.
The impact of the blow was so powerful it buckled Taylor’s right leg. His body hit the canvas hard, causing him to fall back into a neutral corner. With Chávez pacing at the opposite end of the ring, referee Richard Steele began the count. Despite having received numerous blows throughout the fight, Taylor’s conditioning was such that he was up at the count of five. Though clearly hurt, he had the wherewithal to use the ropes to help him up, making full eye contact with Steele as Steele reached the count of six. At eight, Steele asked Taylor if he was okay. When Taylor didn’t respond, Steele repeated the question. Taylor looked away, toward his corner and, to the dismay of millions, waved his arms in the air, calling off the fight and giving the victory to Chávez.
Taylor’s trainer, Lou Duva, was absolutely livid, charging the ring and lambasting Steele while his fighter still stood wobbled in the corner. Chávez, meanwhile, was carried on his team’s shoulders, arms raised knowing he had just survived his toughest fight yet. Among all the arguments made both ways, a few crucial facts are often neglected. Taylor, for instance, had only fought beyond 10 rounds once in his 25 previous bouts. With 25 seconds to go in the fight, Chávez connected with a heavy shot that wobbled Taylor. Steele, at this point, stepped in very close to the action, an indication that he was seriously considering stopping the fight, and further evidence that he had witnessed a great deal of punishment. As the appointed referee, it was his job to assess whether Taylor had received too much.
Above and beyond maintaining the rules of boxing, a referee’s primary responsibility is the safety and welfare of the boxers. At all times. Among other things, the guidelines a referee abides by clearly state that he/she shall have the authority to stop a contest any time he/she thinks it is too one-sided. So if a fighter is in a condition in which continuing would only subject them to serious injury, then it is up to the referee’s discretion to stop the bout. The rules do not say the referee can stop the fight unless there are two seconds left and the hurt fighter will win by decision; nor is there any mention of a referee allowing a contest to continue because he assumes the other fighter could not possibly administer further abuse before the bell rings. Let us not forget, furthermore, that this decision was made in real time.
In the 12th Round, there was no way for Steele to know that Taylor had swallowed two pints of his own blood, which were oozing from a lip laceration suffered early in the fight. Nor did Steele know that this blood had caused considerable kidney damage, clotting inside of the Philadelphia fighter, and that over the next four days he would urinate pure blood as a result. Surely Steele had no idea that Taylor had suffered a broken jaw and broken ribs. What he did know was that Taylor was in grave trouble. Any boxing fan who has ever watched a fight up close will attest to the fact that punches are much different in real life, particularly in a bout involving a heavy puncher like Chávez. In the ring, the punishment a fighter receives is further magnified. Richard Steele, in other words, had the closest and most brutal perspective, outside of the fighters themselves, of a spectacular beating, a fact that no doubt influenced his decision.
Dr. Flip Homansky, the man responsible for sending Taylor to the hospital immediately after the fight, pointed out that “Meldrick suffered a facial fracture, he was urinating blood, his face was grotesquely swollen. This kid was truly beaten up to the face, the body, and the brain.” Years later Steele would go on to say, “Meldrick took a lot of hard shots. . .[he] went down like there was no more life in him.” This last statement is particularly telling when one considers that after this fight, Taylor’s career itself had no more life in it. Despite winning another title, he was never the same fighter, going on to lose to a series of fighters who previously had no business being in the same ring as Taylor. Steele closes with: “When I see a man that’s had enough, I stop the fight.”
It is easy to forget that all of this damage was incurred before Steele chose to stop the fight. What if he had let it go on? What if it only took Chávez one second to get to him and even less time to land the final blow? Perhaps Gerald McClellan could answer this if he still had full use of his faculties. Maybe Jimmy García would have something to add if he were still here. Say what you will about Steele favoring Don King fighters (Chávez was promoted by King for the majority of his career), but he had a judgment call to make that fateful night: he could either choose to risk a young man’s life for a chance at glory, or stop the fight and save him from himself and the possibly fatal fists that awaited him.
This past weekend we were reminded of just how much bearing two seconds have on our lives. In Puerto Rico, ironically just before Juan Manuel López accused referee Roberto Ramírez Sr. of a premature stoppage and fixing the fight, Julio César Chávez was seen wearing a tuxedo, celebrating the victory of countryman Orlando Salido. Chávez is currently a commentator for Mexican television and is heavily involved in the careers of his boxing sons, Omar and JCC Jr. Taylor, on the other hand, has virtually disappeared from the public eye, resurfacing briefly a few years ago with the news of a book aptly titled Two Seconds From Glory (a book which has yet to be available). He continued fighting at club level until 2002 and is feared to suffer from severe pugilistic dementia, his once hopeful words now slurred beyond recognition.
Growing up I was a hardcore Meldrick Taylor fan. I remember asking my father to buy me boxing trunks with tassels so that I could fight like him whenever I stepped into the ring. I used to watch this fight on tape over and over, memorizing the commentating and every combination thrown. Each time I watched it I couldn’t help but hope that the result would be different. Maybe this time Meldrick would answer, “Yes,” to Steele’s question. Maybe this time he would duck under that right hand, or block it. Maybe this time Duva would tell Taylor to get on his bicycle the last three minutes and just clinch when Chávez came close, instead of telling him that he needed to win the round. But the punch finds its mark. Every time. As a former fighter and fan of Taylor, I must say that what Steele did took a lot of courage. To this day he is accosted by fight fans, demanding an explanation for his actions. Perhaps the condition that Taylor currently finds himself in is an indication that a fighter’s quest for glory often supersedes our body’s threshold, thus making a decision made by any referee secondary. Or maybe the fact that Taylor is still alive could be the most explanation he’ll ever need.
José A. Maldonado is senior staff writer at punchrate.com and contributor to realcombatmedia.com
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COMMENTS
English
It was the right decision. Otherwise, what is the point of time? When you ask a man twice if he is OK to defend himself and he doesn’t answer…the answer is NO. I will never understand why this “controversy” carries on…mostly because Duva made a big (and incorrect) spectacle of himself and tricked all of the wrestling fans watching…
This was the ULTIMATE comeback…and “time” will prove it. Rules are rules and you are 100% correct about the ref’s main job. It isn’t to hope and pray that (since there are two-five seconds left) that a fighter that isn’t replying will be OK to leave it to the judges…
Taylor was never the same…one more punch could killed him…and there was time for it.
Call me when the fight is stopped two seconds AFTER the last round.
1.800.F*CK.YOU select extension 1 if you still don’t get it.