School me on Archie Moore...

Apparently when training he refused to give up steak and developed a method of chewing every bite of meat until it was dry of all it's juices and then he would spit out the remnants. To the best of my knowledge he is the only fighter to have done this

 

Other fighters did it long before Archie, but none of them could sell it like Archie, who was a master salesman. It was also a very common trick that wrestlers used to use back in the day and where it might have originated from, but who knows. Jack Dempsey himself even did it during his middleweight days, but once he became a heavyweight he could eat more freely, which was also the case with Archie when he started to fight more regularly at heavyweight.

From an old article of Dempsey’s from before the Willard fight Dempsey mentioned he received a lot of dieting and training advice from William Muldoon, which included fasting, draining the juices from meat and feeding the leftovers to livestock, etc...

 

Archie Moore was one of my favorite fighters. He’s extremely underrated at HW going like 64-4-1 (those losses by the way we’re Marciano, Ali, Patterson and Bivins I think most of them coming after the age of 38). Man had a who’s who of a winning record with wins over Harold Johnson, Nino Valdez, Bob Baker, Joey Maxim, Jimmy Bivins, Bob Satterfield, Clarence Henry, Curtis Sheappard, Lloyd Marshall, Charley Williams, Phil Muscato, etc.
He was raised by his Aunt got into trouble as a youth. Went to juvenile detention center where he first started to box and learned he had a natural talent for it. Got out and I believe he went out west and worked some kind of FDR works project. Worked in the lumber field if I recall correctly. Started taking fights from there.
Archie didn’t believe in paying sparring partners. That’s the reason for his high fight count. He would take fights in between big fights to warm up. Sometimes he was known to carry his opponents so he could get a full workout in. His thought process was why not get paid for it.
He was initially Ali’s trainer after the olympics. There personalities clashed though. Moore tried to train him to be better defensively not dance around as much. Also wanted Ali to do things like housework and such but that wasn’t gonna fly. Eventually egos clashed and they fizzled out although both still had a respect for each other.
Despite there fight.
Moore would later go on to train George Foreman who did ok for himself. If I got one or two things wrong there let me know been awhile since I read a book about him

 

You can essentially split Moore's career into three segments.

The first is his time transitioning between middle and heavy. He has a few good results vs mid-tier fighters, but that period of his career is primarily defined by his rivalry with the Black Murderer's Row. Mixed results vs them, losing some and winning some. In the end, he ended up 12-7-3 vs them (or 14-7-3 if you count Bolden), with notable wins over Marshall, Williams, Bivins and Lytell. Notable losses to Burley, Bivins and Booker. It's an excellent record to be frank, and one worthy of being called great in its own.

The second segment is what I'd regard as his prime. He may not have been as consistent here as he was later on, and maybe not quite as athletic as he was earlier on, but I think during these four years or so, he had his best nights. Between 1946 and 1950, he beat all manners of fighter. Bigger, smaller - southpaw, not - swarmer, puncher, or boxer - it didn't matter. He beat them all. Except Charles, of course. Even still, he did about as well as anyone did vs Charles during that period. On film, in his fights with Bivins and Smith he looks astounding.

The third segment is his legendary run in the early to mid 50s. From his 121st fight, to the 176th (vs Marciano), one draw, two losses. Once on disqualification - which was avenged - and the other to an all-time great he beat four times. That's 52-2-1, with wins over a who's who of the era at heavy and light-heavyweight. He also won the title in that time as well, beating near-great Joey Maxim. After that fight, Moore had 44 more, where he won 39. Not too many top fighters, but he defended his title plenty of times and kept on going for another seven years.

Moore's career is legendary and he's one of those fighters who's scope is one you can only get to grips with if you have explored everyone in the era, because he literally fought them all. I have him top ten P4P. His longevity is probably the best ever. I mean, keep in mind that Moore beat Maxim when he was 36 years old - and already past his best - that that's before a twelve year title reign. He beat a slew of greats, and a slew of champions and as many contenders as anyone ever.

 

I read his book Any Boy Can — which was also the name of the foundation he started in San Diego to aid troubled or poor youth to play sports.

Archie wasn’t just a great fighter, he was a great citizen and man.

 

I believe the Ole Mongoose has more knockouts than anyone in boxing history. He could punch a bit. He knew how to set traps, lull opponents to sleep. Later in his career he would come into the ring with the gray hair on his temples, sort of perhaps getting his opponent to have sympathy for him.

 

That is some post right there young George.

 

https://media1.tenor.com/images/0ea9486d347e9b9a9053ca0371924889/tenor.gif?itemid=3418052

 

There's actually an old British fighter with more (obviously Moore is vastly better overall).
https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/17871

 

His heavyweight record alone was somewhere around 64-4-4-46. Better than most natural heavies

 

Yeah I was schooled on that too a few months ago. Had no idea there was anyone who had more knockouts than the mongoose. Still a damn impressive KO record though