The Case for Meldrick Taylor

Last year as the ballots for the boxing hall of fame was announced, I wrote about two fighters that deserved induction and had not received their just due.

I was happy to see former welterweight champion Donald Curry's entrance into the HOF at Canastota last year after writing about his candidacy, but sadly a change in ballot eligibility has led to loaded class this year and likely the following year or two, which is likely to cost the other of our two "cases" from last year- former WBA flyweight champion Santos Laciar any chance of induction soon.

Since I have a soft spot for the deserving, yet underdog in just about every sport and I wanted to continue to make a case for a fighter that has an argument to be enshrined in the boxing hall, yet has fallen between the cracks a bit.
The new rules for the hall, where fighters become eligible after three years of retirement, rather than the previous five years, have created a loaded class in which there are several possible inductees under a new rule- each class for boxers inducts three fighters and if another fighter would reach eighty-five percent of the vote, the class can exceed the normal three.
The class has two automatics in Bernard Hopkins and Juan Manuel Marquez and likely a third without the PED cloud in Shane Mosley, while others that could eventually receive support in Carl Froch, Tim Bradley, Israel Vazquez, and Sergio Martinez.
That's a class that has plenty of depth, especially compared to last year's class that inducted Donald Curry (deserving) and two borderline candidates in Julian Jackson and Buddy McGirt, all three of which would have still been struggling to gather votes against the next few classes of eligible voters.

My choice may not be as deserving as the recently added class, but I thought he was shortchanged going against last year's class where he stacked up very well.
In fact, Meldrick Taylor defeated Buddy McGirt convincingly and while McGirt is Taylor's only Hall of Fame victory, Taylor defeated several names in the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions that were contenders and even though he just missed grabbing the largest trophy of all in arguably the most controversial referee decision in boxing history, Meldrick Taylor put together a career that is worthy of discussion.


After winning the gold medal in the featherweight division at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, Taylor turned pro with Main Events and hired family patriarch Lou Duva as his trainer along with Olympic teammates Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Tyrell Biggs, and Mark Breland as Main Events instantly became a huge promotional player in the industry in one swoop.

Taylor wasn't matched softly as he decisioned former number one lightweight contender Robin Blake in his tenth pro fight and two fights later decisioned former title challenger Harold Brazier.
Taylor's next fight was a heralded one as Taylor faced veteran Howard Davis in what would be the only fight between members of the 1976 and 1984 Olympic teams.
In a close fight, most seemed to think Taylor had won, but the judges scored a draw in what proved to be the last strong performance from Davis before his decline out of the sport.
Still, the disappointing result was a small setback and Taylor's next three fights were against club fighters and journeymen such as Roque Montoya and Primo Ramos before attempting another leap forward.
Taylor would not have an easy touch in former title challenger Cubanito Perez, who had lost only twice to champions Hector Camacho and Jimmy Paul with the title challenge to Paul a year earlier coming by a narrow majority decision.
Perez would not fare as well against the flashy fists of Taylor as Taylor would lose a combined two rounds from the judges in establishing himself as a title contender.


Taylor's next three fights over the next year saw an impressive fifth-round knockout of undefeated Ivan Gonzalez sandwiched between wins over journeymen Martin Quiroz and Richard Fowler and would set the stage for Taylor's first attempt at a world title in September of 1988.
The title challenge of recently honored Hall of Famer Buddy McGirt in Atlantic City was thought to be very close with McGirt being a very slight favorite.
McGirt was entering the fight after two terrific efforts, a 12th round knockout of Frankie Warren to win the vacant title that avenged his only loss and added a first-round knockout of Howard Davis in his first title defense.
The knockout of Davis, who had drawn with Taylor, was the difference in McGirt being the listed favorite by the oddsmakers in one of the first IBF 12 round title fights as the organization had joined the other two sanctioning bodies in reducing the distance as McGirt's wins over Warren and Davis were scheduled for the former distance of 15 rounds.

The stoppage in the final round over McGirt was the best win of Taylor's career as he was faster and stronger than McGirt as he built a large lead on the scorecards entering the final round.
Taylor pounded McGirt around the ring, not satisfied with a decision victory and trainer Al Certo entering the ring with roughly a minute to go to save his man from further shots.
Taylor's punching power was good, but not great and had he worked on his technique a bit more, he could have stopped McGirt earlier in a dominant win.
The knockout loss was the first stoppage loss ever for McGirt, who would win a welterweight title later in his career and only near the end of his career, would McGirt suffer another knockout loss to Andrew Council.



Taylor would make his first defense in January 1989 against John Meekins, who had an interesting 1988 with wins over undefeated prospect Mike Mungin and former champion Saoul Mamby along with a third-round KO over Mohammad Kawoya with a highlight still seen to this day as the referee jumped in to stop the fight and as he was moving in, Kawoya launched a crushing right hand that knocked Meekins cold and gave the unusual highlight of the loser jumping for joy as the winner laid prone on the canvas out of sorts.
Taylor would stop Meekins when Meekins could not answer the bell for the eighth round after Taylor had dominated the fight.

Next up was his mandatory title defense against undefeated Courtney Hooper from Detroit's Kronk boxing team.
Hooper took Taylor the distance and was more competitive than Meekins, but Taylor still won a wide unanimous decision despite Hooper landing several punches south of the beltline.
After two non-title wins (fighters used to fight non-title fights to stay sharp for their defenses, imagine that-actually fighting!), the most anticipated fight in boxing was signed for March 1990 as Taylor and his IBF title would face WBC champion Julio Cesar Chavez in a title unification match between undefeated champions with the winner making a case as the best fighter in the game as well.

The Taylor-Chavez fight was voted not only the fight of the year but the fight of the decade with the fight carrying violence and action that to this day, for all the great wins and fights that Julio Cesar Chavez fought in his career, it is this fight and the name Meldrick Taylor that he is linked with first.
The fight was a masterpiece as Taylor dazzled the slower Chavez with his unmatched hand speed to zoom to a large scorecard advantage.
Even still. Chavez never stopped walking forward and was dishing out more than his share of punishment as he worked the body to the point that Taylor suffered kidney damage after the fight, and gave Taylor severe swelling around both eyes caused by facial fractures.
Entering the final round, if Taylor didn't get knocked out, he wins the fight, but the question was could he do so?
Taylor's corner didn't help matters as they sent him out with orders that said he needed to win the last round when actually he did not.
Taylor's punches had little behind them, even though he was still landing while every punch that Chavez landed shook Taylor.
Finally, with seconds remaining, Chavez landed his hail mary with a right hand that collapsed Taylor near a corner.
As HBO's Larry Merchant spoke "If Taylor gets up, he wins the fight", Taylor rose at six, but referee Richard Steele stopped the fight with two seconds remaining.
With only two seconds to go, Chavez couldn't have hurt Taylor further and the ending still ranks as arguably the most controversial ending in boxing history.
In my opinion, Taylor deserved those two seconds and deserved the victory for both what he dished out and what he took.


Often in boxing fighters leave a piece of themselves in the ring in a fight.
It's irretrievable and it doesn't return and both Chavez and Taylor left a chunk of their abilities in the Las Vegas Hilton that night.
Chavez won twenty one more fights before he would suffer that first loss and he would win against some really good fighters, but the boxer/puncher machine was never quite the same after facing Meldrick Taylor and even though years went by before losing, the greatness that Chavez once had was gone and even if replaced differently, that great fighter was not going to return.
It was worse for Taylor, who didn't have the power in his gloves that Chavez held and the beating slowed him down just enough to not be elite, to be unable to stand in the pocket and keep an attackers fighter off with his brilliant speed anymore.
Taylor's decline wasn't apparent right away as Taylor defeated Primo Ramos for the second time in a comeback bout and signed to face Aaron "Superman" Davis for the WBA welterweight title that Davis had recently stripped from Taylor's stablemate Mark Breland via spectacular knockout.


Taylor looked good in taking the title from Davis via unanimous decision but didn't look sharp in his first defense against little known Luis Garcia as Taylor escaped with his title with a split decision victory.
Taylor won a non-title fight before retaining the championship via unanimous decision against Glenwood "The Real Beast" Brown in Taylor's only championship fight in his hometown of Philadelphia, but the cracks in the armor were beginning to show as Taylor was knocked down twice in the bout by Brown.
Taylor had called for a rematch with Chavez at welterweight immediately after their first fight, but Chavez was more interested in staying at junior welterweight for a proposed battle with Pernell Whitaker.
Taylor's mistake that essentially ended his career as a world-class fighter rose from his frustrations with not getting the Chavez rematch and rose in weight to challenge Terry Norris for his WBC junior middleweight belt.

Taylor wasn't a natural welterweight and moving up to 154 against the physically bigger Norris was a huge mistake.
Besides the size advantage, Norris was a huge puncher at the weight, while Taylor was an average hitter at best at welterweight and that took away the one weakness of Norris- a notoriously soft chin.
Norris dropped Taylor twice in the fourth round and referee Mills Lane saved the always courageous Taylor from himself before the end of the fourth.


Taylor took only a few months off to heal after losing to Norris and returned to welterweight for a title defense in England to face Crisanto Espana.
The undefeated Espana was leading on all three cards when he finished off Taylor for good in the eighth round to take away Taylor's championship and the verdict seemed to be in- Taylor was through.


However, there was still one more fight that Taylor and fans wanted to see- the rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez and now Chavez was interested, should Taylor make the fight worth making.
Carefully matched, Taylor won three fights over less than great opponents, including undefeated Chad Broussard and when Taylor knocked out Broussard in two rounds, the rematch was signed for another drop in weight to fight for Chavez's WBC junior welterweight belt.
Taylor fought far better than expected and the fight would have been far closer had Taylor not been penalized two points for low blows, but Chavez knocked Taylor down in the eighth and finished him shortly after the knockdown.


Meldrick Taylor never fought in a major fight again after the Chavez loss and although he fought an additional ten times against low-level opponents, Taylor won only six of those including a decision loss to Quirino Garcia, who entered their fight with a record of 21-19.

Is Meldrick Taylor a Hall of Famer?
I don't think he has the same claim as Donald Curry or Santos Laciar, but you could make a point that without Richard Steele and those two seconds, Taylor is the first to defeat Julio Cesar Chavez with his case for the hall would have been immediately strengthened.
Taylor won titles in two divisions, beat Buddy McGirt decisively, and his resume' is comparable to that of McGirt, who may have gotten a few votes based on his training success to put him over the top in a soft year of eligible boxers.
I suppose my argument comes down to this- Do you believe that Buddy McGirt's resume is superior to Meldrick Taylor's?
I don't believe that it is and Taylor has the head to head victory as well.
That doesn't mean that I would be anti-Buddy McGirt being inducted, but if McGirt's career is the bar for induction Meldrick Taylor measures up.

The next few classes with the change in voting will see a stacked ballot for some time, but I think Meldrick Taylor is deserving under the right circumstances and should receive more consideration in the future.