My favorite fight of all time. Fast paced savagery on the inside, tremendous exchanges, brutal combinations, and a brilliant come from behind win. Phenomenal epic fight between two at the time top 5 p4pers. It was nowhere near being the domination the HBO team would like to have you believe. I had Taylor up 7 rounds to 4 heading into the 12th.
I have always maintained that Barrera-Morales I is the greatest single fight of all time, but this may be the most re-watchable. There is an undeniable aura in the air that something special and historic is about to take place during both of the combatants ring walks. It really is palpable.
In terms of what transpired inside the ring, I have to concur with the posters here who have suggested that the commentary team was failing to recognise the good work from JCC. This seemed to be a common phenomenon however, because the same thing happened during JCC's fight with Mario Martinez and Dwight Pratchett. The Mexican was really cute on the inside – slipping, rolling, and firing back with meaningful punches. He was incredible at this, especially with his back against the ropes.
Specifically in this fight, it seemed to be the right hand lead that was doing most of the damage for Chavez. Short shots on the inside that could easily be missed by on-lookers, but they take there toll over a 12 round fight. The evidence for this was the state of Taylor's face by the championship rounds. Despite being told by the commentary team that we had been witnesses to a one-sided boxing masterclass on the part of the American, Taylor looked like he had been kicked in the face by Larry Holmes. A jarring image to say the least.
This isn't to gloss over the success Taylor undeniably had though, as he was fantastic through 9 rounds. He really made it difficult for Chavez in there by setting a frantic pace early which meant you had no choice but to award the majority of the rounds to him. But he wasn't only a victim of a questionable call from seasoned referee Richard Steele, he was also the victim of his own pride which caused him to go shot for shot with JCC in the dying embers of the fight, despite him obviously labouring by this point.
As for the scoring, I only had Taylor 2 points up going into the 12th because I felt he lost rounds 9-11. I also managed to give round 2 to Chavez and scored the third even. Admittedly this might have been a little charitable to the Mexican so I am perfectly fine with the idea that a knockout was needed for Chavez to win at the point of the stoppage. As for the call, it's questionable, but Taylor wasn't responsive to Steele's questions. He didn't even look at him.
Phenomenal fight!