by Ryan McArthur– Over the last decade, Manchester has become the Philadelphia of the 1970s and 80s. A hotbed of boxing activity regularly producing hard working, blue collar pugs from its vibrant inner-city gyms. One such pug is Jamie Moore.
“Mooresy” has become the British poster boy of the underrated, underpaid boxer, fighting for small purses in small arenas across the north of England. European light middleweight champion and an owner of the lonsdale belt, (presented to a fighter after three successful defences) Moore has spent a decade working towards a shot at the world title.. In Britain at least, there is no active fighter more deserving of that title shot than Jamie Moore.
After his debut win in 1999, a third round T.K.O. over Clive Johnson, he went on a run that led to the Commonwealth and British title, with a points win over rival Michael Jones (Moore would go on to fight Jones two more times winning their series 2-1). A loss to Ossie Duran, partly due to a hip injury, resulted in the loss of the Commonwealth title, although a series of successful British title defences meant a lonsdale belt for keeps, one of the most well respected achievments a British boxer can accomplish. The most famous of those defences came against Matthew Macklin in what was to become the British fight of the year in 2006. A real barnburner, Moore won via tenth round K.O. Nearly three years past (partly due to a number of frustrating injuries) before Moore fought for, and won easily, the European title with his dismantling of Michael Picirillo that ended in a third round K.O. An easy second round T.K.O. in his first defence against Roman Dzuman elevated him to #2 in the WBC rankings.
With the exception of Paul Williams, Jamie Moore would not look out of place with any of the worlds top light middleweights. He certainly would not be travelling across the pond just to make the numbers up like some previous U.K. exports. His come forward, all action style and vastly improved boxing ability would make him a big hit with the U.S. audience and would certainly be a match for the current crop of light middleweight titlists Daniel Santos, Cory Spinks, Sergei Dzinziruk and Sergio Martinez.
Through hard graft and determination, Jamie Moore has pushed himself into Britains top five boxers.Whereas former stablemate Amir Khan (Khan was formerly trained by Moores trainer Oliver Harrison) has recently fought for world honours, Moore still hasnt got his shot. If he keeps improving the way he has been, then it should only be a matter of time before he gets it. With his high ranking with the WBC, a fight with Martinez, Kermit Cintron or even J.C.Chavez Jnr should happen within the next twelve months, although what u deserve and what u get dont necessarily go hand in hand in the fight game.
O.k. so Jamie Moore might not be Bennie Briscoe, or maybe not even Boogaloo Watts, but like the old philadelphia fighters he is an old fashioned, heart on your sleeve kind of fighter and hopefully by this time next year, has the chance to fight for the light middleweight championship of the world.