25.09.05 – By Ronan Keenan: When he was in the early stages of his career, Mike Tyson went by the nickname of ‘Kid Dynamite’. Now David Walker has adopted that moniker, but he needed the power of a young Tyson if he was to make a dent in Jamie Moore’s defence on friday. Moore, the defending British light-middleweight champion, produced a flawless performance of controlled, precise boxing on his way to a fourth round stoppage victory at the Carnall Leisure Centre in Manchester..
The ring-walks of both fighters indicated the style that each man would fight with. Walker bounded to the ring in a vigorous, energetic manner, while his opponent walked calmly, looking cool and focused.
Then when the first bell sounded, the southpaw Moore, 154, speared Walker with accurate jabs and straight lefts, while the challenger answered with wild, flailing combinations that were easily blocked.
It was evident in this opening round that Moore was the more skilled boxer as he landed a variety of clean left uppercuts and hooks to the head and body of Walker. It was also obvious that Moore was the bigger man as he backed up his opponent, even though Walker, 153 ½, was billed as having a two inch height advantage.
‘Kid Dynamite’ was expected to be the more aggressive fighter, but the champion utilised his jab and left cross to prevent Walker from finding his rhythm. Then, by the midway point of the second round, Walker, 29, was regularly in full retreat. His flurries seemed to have no snap as Moore almost effortlessly deflected them off his gloves. Moore, 26, seemed unfazed by Walker’s sporadic attacks and even though he suffered a cut due to a clash of heads, the Salford man appeared unnerved. The punch-stat numbers highlighted Moore’s greater accuracy: both men threw 62 punches, but Moore landed 26 to only eight from Walker.
Moore began to land with even greater authority in the third round with his jabs and left cross frequently snapping back the head of the challenger. Even when Walker managed to block Moore’s combinations, he was still visibly jolted by their force. All the while, Moore remained the epitome of control as every punch had a noticeable effect on Walker. The variety of Moore’s work seemed to perplex the challenger and at the very end of the round he went down from a left hook to the body.
The bell sounded to end the round just as Walker got to his feet and the bout could have been stopped there and then. Walker was clearly outclassed, much in the same manner as when Roman Karmazin stopped him in three rounds in 2003. However, Walker has a deserved reputation of being a warrior and he was determined to fight on. Alas, he wasn’t helped by the advice he received from his trainer Robert McCracken. The instructions from McCracken seemed like wishful thinking at best as he told Walker to back up his opponent- a task that was a lot easier said than done.
Perhaps McCracken knew that Walker can only fight one way, since when Moore downed his fighter with a four punch barrage 40 seconds into the fourth, he promptly threw in the towel. Walker’s record fell to 23-4-1 (13), and he was clearly conquered by the classy Moore who produced arguably the most impressive performance of his 22-3 (15) career.
Afterwards, Moore claimed that this was not his best performance, but in no other major fight has he displayed such controlled, varied punching blended with a watertight guard. This showing of defence and an economical, quality punch output was non-existent in his previous two fights with Michael Jones, which were scrappy, frantic displays. Now Moore looks to be at his peak and he understandably stated that he wants to move beyond British title level and will be looking for a major step up in competition for his next outing.
All questions/comments welcomed at: keenanboxing@hotmail.com