Remembering Terry Norris-Meldrick Taylor

Boxing has always had its share of the good, bad, pretty, and ugly.  We always have conversations of who would win “fantasy fights” featuring fighters from different eras, and conversations of fights that should have taken place, but didn’t.

Then comes conversations few like to talk about: fights that shouldn’t have taken place, but did.

The perfect example of this took place 34 years ago on May 9, 1992, when Terry Norris defended his super welterweight championship against former 2-time welterweight champion Meldrick Taylor, which turned out to be a four-round systematic, one-sided beatdown in Norris’s favor.  This was the “biggest” win of Norris’s career at this point, but it essentially completed the downfall of the once-promising Taylor, who never fully recovered from the beating he took in his devastating KO loss to Julio Cesar Chavez in 1990.

The questions are still being asked: Why did this gross mismatch take place?

Let’s look at this from each fighter’s angle.

From the Norris angle:  He was vocal about wanting fights against high-caliber opponents to challenge Pernell Whitaker for the distinction of the best fighter pound-for-pound and was looking for bigger money fights after he dethroned a way past-his-prime Sugar Ray Leonard a year earlier.  Trying to solidify his status as a superstar, Norris and his team had looked at Taylor for a while, especially after Taylor beat Aaron Davis to win a welterweight belt at 147 in early 1991.

From the Taylor angle:  He was doing everything he can escape the ghost of Chavez after the brutal loss in 1990. By taking this fight, he and his team thought they could escape the ghost by beating Norris.  The chance of winning a world championship in his third weight class was also something Taylor was after.  Having a catch-weight at 150.5 for this fight also made it easier for both him and his management team to pursue.  Also with failed negotiations for a Chavez rematch at the time, this is the route Taylor and his team felt necessary to take.

There’s the angle of each of the two fighters.

Everything, however, ends there.  Why?  Despite how this appeared to be competitive on paper, one really has to look deeper.  Look no further than how Taylor barely escaped against Glenwood Brown four months earlier where he was floored twice and got a questionable decision win in his own home state of Pennsylvania.  The signs were there as Taylor struggled.

MELDRICK TAYLOR VS TERRY NORRIS BUILD UP AND FIGHT

While Taylor struggled post-Chavez, Norris was simply dismantling fighters left and right during his reign as champion, beginning with when he KO’d John Mugabi in one round in 1990.  Although many of those fighters were on the wrong side of their careers, the way Norris was beating them with ease couldn’t be ignored.

Surprising, this was only a 2-1 fight in Norris’ favor odds wise but felt way higher.  Not to the point where you can cay Taylor had no chance because “anything can happen in boxing”.  However, everything pointed toward a Norris wipeout, which actually happened when they fought.  The issue isn’t who would win, but who’s overall idea it was to put Taylor, who was an overfilled junior welterweight and a declining fighter, against the naturally bigger, stronger and fresher buzzsaw in Norris that was eating up the division and was on the rise.

As a result, regardless of the reasons why it happened, Norris-Taylor of May 9, 1992, is a perfect case of a fight that had zero business taking place.

By the time everyone knew it, it was too late.  Damage was done.  What was left of Taylor was fed to the hungry lion and Norris simply ate him up til there was nothing left.