The Glade 4.0

Meldrick Taylor v. Richard Steele, 1990.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

LOL, actually, knowing the extent of Taylor's injuries Steele made the correct call. Every single bone in Taylor's face was broken, and he was in real danger, and littraly could have died had the fight not been stopped. When I watched the fight, I felt the same as you do now, but after hearing the doctor's report post-fight I changed my mind.

the job of the official is to protect the fighters, not to protect the outcome.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I watched a documentary on it a few years back and it just tugged at your heart strings when you watched his biography leading up to the fight, the actual fight, and then his bio afterwards....soooo sad!! I cried.
Maybe his injuries were that bad, but come on man, there was like 2 seconds left! What could have happened in 2 seconds?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Manslaughter.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Yeah but he was standing in his corner. 2 seconds isn't really long enough to have landed another punch, is it? Two. Seconds. One. Two.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I saw the video for that one. While I completely understand the need to protect the fighters, that was terrible. The other fighter was on the complete opposite side of the ring. By the time the ref would've set the fighters in place to begin, it would've been over. There's zero chance another punch would've landed. Zero.

In the refs defense, he was probably so concerned with protecting the fighter that he didn't see the clock to know how much was left. Then again, they always do that clap with 10 seconds left, so I'm not sure. That's definitely a bad call though.

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Not only is it enough time to land "a" punch, it's enough time to have landed 3-5 power punches to the head of a defenseless fighter, who already had many significant head and facial injuries.

In addition, the referee is not, I repeat NOT, supposed to be watching or paying any attention what-so-ever to the clock. That is in the sole province of the bell man. The job of the ring official is to protect the fighters. That is all.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

You're just wrong here. He was on the other side of the ring with 3 seconds. That's not counting the amount of time it'd take the ref to center both the fighters and wave his hand to say it's good to go again. He had zero chance to land a single punch. Zero. I stand by that.

Also, considering how fixed the sport of boxing has been through the years, it doesn't help seeing stuff like this.

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Do you believe the standing 8 count which seperated the fighters was warranted?

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I believe he was right to separate the fighters. I'm not completely blaming the ref. He had other things on his mind. I'm just saying it was a blown call. Things happen, but it was definitely an screwup.

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OK, knowing that you agreed with the standing 8 count in this instance, do you know what the purpose of the standing 8 count is?

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

...to protect the boxer, and to award a knockdown to the opponent.

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Not quite. The reason a standing 8 count exists is because one of the two combatants is unable to defend himself, the official fears for that combatant's immediate saftey, and to make an evaluation of that fighter's ability to continue. The reason the knockdown is awarded, is because the fighter being protected is assumed to have been in a position where a knockdown is inevitable, however in the judgement of the official the fighter may not be able to absorb any more punishment and continue without risking horrific injury or death, which is why the evaluation is nessecary. In the instance that a fighter has already been knocked down, the 8 count exists for the same purpose.

Had Steele not issued the stoppage Chavez would have been able to beat on Taylor for another five to six seconds, which almost certainly would have resulted in 3-8 power punches landed to the head of Taylor, who was unresponsive to Richard Steele. Those punches likely would have resulted in another knock down, and any single punch landed could have been deadly, given the drastic changes to the speech patterns, timing, and hand eye coordination of Taylor after the fight.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Again, like I said "to protect the boxer."

Regardless, I said a knockdown is awarded, which is correct. I don't see how those two reasons didn't cover everything you just stated.

I guess I just fail to see where these 5 or 6 seconds are coming from. The ref didn't raise his hand until 4 seconds. At that exact moment, Chavez's back was turned and he was already celebrating. By the time the ref would've let him go, it would've been over, right? If I'm seeing this wrong, let me know. I just know that the ref's hand wasn't raised until 4 seconds were left, and the opponent was on the other side of the ring, beginning to celebrate. Where was the danger of these 3-8 power punches?

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Your answer was incomplete. It avoided, intentionally or otherwise, the fact that it is primarily used as a mechanism to stop fights.



Again, your answer is incomplete.



At about 5.5 seconds remaining Steele notes that Taylor is unresponsive, shakes his head, and waves the fight over.



Which is irrelevant to the job of the referee. The job of the ring official is not to protect a victory by manipulating circumstance, it is it protect the fighters. Even if it was possible for Steele to know that Chavez had his back turned, it isn't one of the factors that are acceptable to enter into the equasion of a fight stoppage.



I disagree. I believe several power punchs certainly would have been thrown, especially given a lack of a called standing 8.



Even if just one punch had been thrown, there was a huge risk of permanent injury.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Maybe not worse call of all time but one of the most bizarre.

Twins vs Braves in the 91 WS. Ron Gant ropes a single. He kind of makes a wide turn at first so has to scramble back to the base when they throw at him. He gets back in time but kind of gets tangled with Kent Hrbek. Hrbek has his glove hand/arm under Gants leg, lifts him up off the bag and the ump calls him out. Horrible, horrible call.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

It's funny, Mark Loretta tried something like that last year for the Dodgers. They called an error on him and gave the guy the base. From the game recap:



Of course, the Dodgers lost 5-0, so it didn't really change a whole lot. But one example of a good call, at least. (I'm sure if we checked, it would ironically turn out to be the same ump who made the wrong call in 1991 or something.)

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Selecting Robert Green for the world cup,

Good Lord how do you let that ball get away from you like that.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."