by James Slater – The career of one of Britain’s most exciting, value for money fighters may have come to an end this weekend, as Manchester’s Jamie Moore, fighting up at middleweight for the first time, lost in a big upset to 35-year-old Sergey Khomitski of Belarus. The upset took place on the under-card of the big Haye-Ruiz bill. 31-year-old Moore, the former British, Commonwealth and European champion at 154-pounds, was unable to continue after the 6th-round. Caught with a right hand to the head and then by a wicked-looking left hand to the body in the closing seconds of the 6th, southpaw Moore made it out of the round but had nothing left upon doing so. Moore fell to 32-5(23). Khomistki, in scoring the biggest win of his career, improved to 22-7-1(9)..
Moore was coming back after suffering a 7th-round stoppage loss at the hands of Ryan Rhodes in October, in what was another great action fight. Blaming his struggle to continue making the light-middleweight limit for the defeat, the crowd-pleaser made the move up to 160. However, as he admitted himself last night whilst being interviewed post-fight, Moore had “nothing” at the new weight either.
Moore did not announce his retirement, saying he may give it another go up at super-middleweight, but it does seem as though the number of wars he’s been in have caught up with him. Jamie also acknowledged this possibility, and he also said that if he has reached the end he can take some satisfaction from knowing how he made his mark on British boxing. And that he sure did.
No-one who was there (this writer included) will ever forget the classic Moore and fellow Brit Matthew Macklin put on in September of 2006. After an incredible give-and-take battle, Moore won with a devastating 10th-round KO that left Macklin – who went on to win the European belt at middleweight – flat on his face for a number of agonising seconds. Immediately recognised as one of the best fights to have been staged in Britain in a number of years, Moore-Macklin looked as though it would maybe even have a part-two later this year.
But now, with Moore looking like he has emptied the well, that rematch seems to be lost forever. Coincidently, the end to Moore’s career seems to have come at the same time as his good friend Ricky Hatton has also reached the end. Hatton, like Moore, is still to officially announce his retirement, but most people feel the hanging up of the gloves is imminent.
Moore and Hatton can now move on, and hopefully the two mates will be able to enjoy a happy retirement. Neither warrior has anything at all to be ashamed of!