The Waiting Ends Tonight for Taylor : Boxing: After four years, he will get a chance to avenge last-second loss to Chavez.

Meldrick Taylor’s face is calm and determined these days, whereas four years ago it was stunned, swollen and hurting.

For all these years, Julio Cesar Chavez has been an obsession for Taylor, a demon haunting his career, and, finally, an inspiration when Taylor decided to throw himself back into boxing.

Tonight at the MGM Grand Garden, years after he was written off as merely another fighter who was almost great, Taylor finally gets the rematch of a fight he fell two seconds short of winning.

“I have to beat him,” Taylor says of Chavez. “I wasn’t going to retire until I beat him. I already did once (until Chavez caught him at the end), and now I have to prove to everybody I still can do it.”

Chavez, though, is not as big as he once was, and even he acknowledges that.

A controversial draw with Pernell Whitaker last September began the tumble. Then he was knocked down by and lost to Frankie Randall. His bizarre victory over Randall last May in their rematch--it was halted by when Chavez was cut by a head-butt--gave Chavez his World Boxing Council junior-welterweight title back, but that only muddied the pond more.

As Taylor moves toward revenge and redemption, the 32-year-old Chavez is speaking more and more of leaving the sport and is angrily lashing back at those who would tarnish his reputation.

Chavez is scheduled to make $1 million for this bout, Taylor $400,000.

Taylor wants to reclaim his glory, Chavez (90-1-1, 77 knockouts) wants only to protect his. He wants to fight Randall again, and possibly Whitaker, both in Mexico, and this Taylor rematch seems mostly a nuisance to him.

“Boxing doesn’t motivate him as much as it used to,” said Gladys Rosa, Chavez’s friend and interpreter. “And he knows from experience that you can’t stay in the ring too long once that happens, because your preparation won’t be excellent and a lot of things can happen in the ring.

“He looks at it and he says to himself that ’95 is going to be the end. It’s a matter that his time has come.”

Says Chavez: “I know there’s been a great deal of criticism over my last few fights. But why? First of all, I’m a human being. I never said I was a robot or some sort of super being. . . . Remember that the greats have lost: Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler. So why all this criticism that I should retire?

“I recognize I’m older. But I’m still good.”

Their first fight here in March of 1990 seemed to freeze Taylor in place as the man who couldn’t quite get it done. But for Chavez, it was a launching point to his years as boxing’s highest-paid non-heavyweight.

Trailing on all three scorecards, Chavez finally caught and pummeled Taylor in the middle of the 12th and final round, then landed a massive right hook that caught Taylor on the chin, knocking him backward against the ropes.

Taylor was up by referee Richard Steele’s count of five, but was obviously still hazy when he glanced over at his then-trainer Lou Duva. That hesitation, plus the fog in Taylor’s eyes, prompted Steele to stop the fight, giving Chavez a technical knockout victory with two seconds remaining.

From there, Taylor had some success, winning a share of the welterweight title three fights later, and some major failures, getting knocked out by Terry Norris and Crisanto Espana in consecutive 1992 bouts.

“Everybody judges me on just two fights,” Taylor says. “That’s not fair. Look at what I’ve done in my career, and judge me on that.”

Between the Espana knockout and the beginning of 1994, Taylor (32-3-1, 18 KOs) had only one bout and had ballooned to more than 180 pounds. On his recent comeback, after signing with Don King, Taylor has scored two quick knockouts over journeymen and returned to the 140-pound class.

Taylor, 27, has predicted an eighth-round knockout of Chavez, which is sure to inspire the expected sellout crowd, which will be made up mostly of Mexican holiday travelers.

Emanuel Steward, Chavez’s trainer and longtime trainer of Thomas Hearns, recognizes the dangers Taylor poses--whether or not he is past his prime. Steward compares the situation to Hearns’ feelings heading into his long-awaited rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard, when everyone considered Hearns a shot fighter. The rematch was ruled a draw, although most observers believe Hearns controlled the bout.

“When a fighter gets a chance at a fight that he never thought he’d ever get, he’s a different fighter than he’s been to that point,” Steward says.

“When he gets the man who’s been haunting him for years, you’ve got to throw all that out, if he’s shot or whatever.

“This is somebody who is going to be coming in with emotion and with four years of memories.”