Archie Moore
Archie Moore had his first professional fight shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and his last just three years before England won the World Cup,
No wonder he was affectionately known as The Old Mongoose.
Generation upon generation of us grew up marvelling at the American who seemed to box forever.
That was not far from reality, since Moore fought across four decades and is believed to be the only pro to have campaigned in the eras of Joe Louis, Marciano and Muhammad Ali.
In the quarter of a century between his paid debut in 1938 and his swansong in 1963, old Archie had 220 fights.
He won 185 of them, 131 by knock out to establish a record which is unlikely ever to be surpassed.
Phenomenal though those statistics are, they tell but a fraction of his story.
The world light-heavyweight champion supreme is ranked as the fourth hardest puncher of all time, the giant heavyweights included.
So wary were his rivals of that power that he was not given his first world title shot until he was 39.
Even then, Joey Maxim did not agree to face him until the leading sportswriters of the early 50s responded to Moore's persistent letters begging them to embarrass the champion into giving him a chance. We scribes do have our uses, from time to time.
Moore outpointed Maxim comprehensively, as he did in their two re-matches, the first of which came just six months but seven fights after he won the title he was to hold for seven years and then regain, at 48, to become the oldest ever light-heavyweight champion.
During his reign, Moore defeated such notables as Bobo Olson, Nino Valdes, Harold Johnson and Willie Pastrano, some of them more than once.
But it was this small man's sorties into the heavyweight division which captured most of the imagination on this side of the Atlantic.
Marciano advocates will point out that the original Rocky stopped Moore in the ninth round of their title fight in New York's Yankee Stadium.
But little Archie knocked him down, for only the second time in his career, in the first round, and so profound was the shock that Marciano promptly retired.
Although he fought, and often beat, other heavyweights, Moore's second challenge for the world heavyweight championship also ended in defeat, this time in the fifth round by Floyd Patterson.
But the Old Mongoose was into his 40s by then, although a long way from hanging up the gloves himself.
In 1956 he was involved in one of the all-time classics of the prize-ring, being floored three times in the first round and once in the second by Yvon Durelle before getting up to KO the Canadian sensation with the last of four knock downs in the 11th.
On he went, enhancing his legend in 1962 with a penultimate fight against none other than a brash young man from Louisville who predicted: 'Old Archie Moore must fall in four.'
So he did, three times, but still, although only a month short of his 49th birthday, he was back up on his feet when the referee stopped it in favour of the then Cassius Clay.
Moore was well into his 50th year as he went into his last fight, determined to go out with a victory.
Sure enough, former wrestler Mike DiBiase was stopped in the third.
Moore went on to star in movies, work for African-American causes and raise seven children by his two wives as well as taking in an under-privileged boy who had been abandoned by his parents.
He died in 1998, four days prior to his 85th birthday and before one website of today's internet age, boxrec.com, enshrined him as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter ever.
The legend of The Old Mongoose lives on.
---
Archie Moore had his first professional fight shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and his last just three years before England won the World Cup,
No wonder he was affectionately known as The Old Mongoose.
Generation upon generation of us grew up marvelling at the American who seemed to box forever.
That was not far from reality, since Moore fought across four decades and is believed to be the only pro to have campaigned in the eras of Joe Louis, Marciano and Muhammad Ali.
In the quarter of a century between his paid debut in 1938 and his swansong in 1963, old Archie had 220 fights.
He won 185 of them, 131 by knock out to establish a record which is unlikely ever to be surpassed.
Phenomenal though those statistics are, they tell but a fraction of his story.
The world light-heavyweight champion supreme is ranked as the fourth hardest puncher of all time, the giant heavyweights included.
So wary were his rivals of that power that he was not given his first world title shot until he was 39.
Even then, Joey Maxim did not agree to face him until the leading sportswriters of the early 50s responded to Moore's persistent letters begging them to embarrass the champion into giving him a chance. We scribes do have our uses, from time to time.
Moore outpointed Maxim comprehensively, as he did in their two re-matches, the first of which came just six months but seven fights after he won the title he was to hold for seven years and then regain, at 48, to become the oldest ever light-heavyweight champion.
During his reign, Moore defeated such notables as Bobo Olson, Nino Valdes, Harold Johnson and Willie Pastrano, some of them more than once.
But it was this small man's sorties into the heavyweight division which captured most of the imagination on this side of the Atlantic.
Marciano advocates will point out that the original Rocky stopped Moore in the ninth round of their title fight in New York's Yankee Stadium.
But little Archie knocked him down, for only the second time in his career, in the first round, and so profound was the shock that Marciano promptly retired.
Although he fought, and often beat, other heavyweights, Moore's second challenge for the world heavyweight championship also ended in defeat, this time in the fifth round by Floyd Patterson.
But the Old Mongoose was into his 40s by then, although a long way from hanging up the gloves himself.
In 1956 he was involved in one of the all-time classics of the prize-ring, being floored three times in the first round and once in the second by Yvon Durelle before getting up to KO the Canadian sensation with the last of four knock downs in the 11th.
On he went, enhancing his legend in 1962 with a penultimate fight against none other than a brash young man from Louisville who predicted: 'Old Archie Moore must fall in four.'
So he did, three times, but still, although only a month short of his 49th birthday, he was back up on his feet when the referee stopped it in favour of the then Cassius Clay.
Moore was well into his 50th year as he went into his last fight, determined to go out with a victory.
Sure enough, former wrestler Mike DiBiase was stopped in the third.
Moore went on to star in movies, work for African-American causes and raise seven children by his two wives as well as taking in an under-privileged boy who had been abandoned by his parents.
He died in 1998, four days prior to his 85th birthday and before one website of today's internet age, boxrec.com, enshrined him as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter ever.
The legend of The Old Mongoose lives on.
---
Comment