I watched the fight this morning, what a battle. For a cliche though, it was very much the young bull against the old experienced bull. In the end the young bull in Moore took a beating. Should Moore's corner have pulled him out at the end of the 7th? It was a heavy knockdown and no one has ever turned the tables on Duran in these circumstances. A stoppage was inevitable. This thread has probably been done but I'm interested to hear.
Before my time but Moore doesn’t like anything special Was he that really that highly rated at the time?
Moores corner and the ref should have been suspended indefinitely. Moore was a favorite going in if I'm not mistaken and was touted as a future star. Duran put on a Palomino like performance. Actually one of my favorite from Duran but it went on too long and Duran showed no mercy at all not that it was his job to do so. But again the ref and Moores chief second were criminal in there actions
I agree with Robert, no one at all was looking out for Moore than night. His corner was criminally negligent and the ref, Magana, was incompetent and/or disinterested. Not sure how much credit to give Duran on this one. Moore was always there to be hit and naturally didn't have a lot of the finer points of the game down, being as inexperienced as he was. Still, he beat Kalule and Weir, so that's not horrible. Kind of like an early David Reid. Lots of success real early, then instant flameout following a hard loss.
Moore was a highly touted amateur who was initially just viewed by the WBA as a way to get the belt onto Charlie Weir, because Moore was willing to fight a South African at a time when there were boycotts. Presumably a promise to fight Weir, plus the inevitable Cordero kickback, was what got Moore the title shot despite his inexperience. Then he surprised a lot of people by beating Weir, then ex-champ Kalule. Going into this fight, Moore was starting to look like he might be the next big thing while Duran's past few years had made him unpredictable. Plus, Moore just looked so much more physically impressive than Duran at this point in their lives. But the experience difference was just too great for Moore. Magana was an awful ref in this fight. I remember Magana being interviewed after the fight and saying he stopped the fight at (I think these were his exactwords) "the most precious moment." He probably meant "precise," but regardless he should have stopped it earlier.
Moore was a rising star who had established himself with the stoppage wins over Weir and Kalule along with a couple of other good wins. Duran had regained a little shine by stopping Pipino Cuevas but was only a couple of fights removed from being embarrassingly outpointed by tap-and-run artist Kirkland Lang. Moore was expected to add a nice scalp to his resume on the way to fighting ... was it Tony Ayala? ... and Duran was expected to lose and ride off into the sunset or ‘opponent’ obscurity. But Duran was still able to summon that fire in his belly when he was in the mood. And boy was he in the mood this night.
Davey Moore showed A lot of courage. That was a scary beating. People can say he only had 12 fights but he was a champion no doubt. Davey Moore was a good fighter.
I think Duran deserves credit because he took a lot of good shots of Moore which would have discouraged many fighters. Duran was no ordinary fighter though. Really I think Moore took the fight on the notion that Duran was on the slide. Duran being a 'genuine' legend in boxing though, continued to surprise many years after.
Yeah it was a plan that backfired majorly. Moore though could have boxed better against Duran. Easy saying that with hindsight
I was watching Magana in the 8th round thinking were refs not allowed to stop fights back then ? Read an article years ago saying, "Trust the WBA to hire a turkey to run a **** fight."
The corner definitely should have stopped the fight earlier. The ref too. It was just a pointless massacre in the 8th round. The NYSAC really dropped the ball that night, not catching on to Resto & Panama’s crimes on the undercard.