Expectation: All-out war to be honest. Moore with a big strong boy like Valdes-should be wild stuff. This content is protected Description: 1. Moore crouched his way in. There was lots of inside mingling as both landed blows to the body. Valdes landed good 1-2's on Moore a few times, but Moore generally did a good job of escaping Valdes' punches. Moore. 2. Funny how even though Archie is much smaller than Valdes, he still falls back into a crouch so much. Moore. 3. Moore. 4. Moore trapped Nino in a corner briefly at the beginning. Valdes became more passive later on; he's tired. Moore. 5. Moore initially landed several left hooks. Then Valdes fired back with several left hooks and right uppercuts. Moore's blitzkrieg encountered little resistance from Valdes other than that though. Moore. 6. Valdes delivered forth his best work since early in round 5--a quick flurry. Moore continued to land several left hooks. Moore. 7. Really something to see the two of them taking turns one-upping each other, each man's flurry being superior to his opponent's previous. Moore hurt Valdes a little bit in the last flurry. The two concluded the round with an exchange of their highest-power guns. Moore. 8. Moore. 9. Moore slammed repeated right hands into Valdes. It turned into a gritty street brawl from there, with Valdes appearing a little groggy in my opinion. Moore. 10. Valdes landed a left hook to the body right after the two touched gloves. The finally was epically climactic with neither man recognizing defense and both laying it all on the line to determine just who was simply the better man in the most primitive of pugilistic matches. Moore. Final score: 10-0 for Moore. As overwhelming as that is, there were several close rounds that went to Moore by a hair. But there's not a single round I would feel justified in giving to Valdes. Assessment: Moore-He looked great. Power, speed, stamina--all top notch. This is the earliest fight where I have observed him using the cross guard so heavily. Moore also showed a good jab on occasion. Valdes-A pretty simple fighter. Tough and strong, with well-formed punches. But he has no speed, no defense, and no movement of the feet or head and shoulders. Decent stamina. To me, Valdes is no better than a tough sparring partner. He gave Moore a tough time all the way, but as I said, never won a round, and seemed content just to give Moore a tough fight. Verdict: Pretty good fight. Void of dramatics and suspense, but entirely action-filled. It certainly won't hurt anybody to watch this. The main drawback was how far out the camera was. You could always tell who was who, but couldn't always trace the action too well.
It was probably my favorite Moore performance. He looked so good against much bigger fighter. I remember him winning this comfortably, though not without some close moments.
You could see why Moore was able to bump off Valdes in the rematch to get that heavyweight title shot.
Thanks for posting and a good performance by Moore. What seems to be true about Valdes is that he was tough on guys who stood on the outside with his height and reach, but carry the fight to him and he is not as effective at all, as Moore, Satterfield, and Machen show on film. Moore simply looks great and while the fight was tough, I think he won handily.
Love this fight as well thanks for posting! Shows imo Moore at his best in his best stretch of his career. He used every trick against Valdez. Nino had good strength speed occasional combo. But was a basic fighter nothing unique about him. I wouldn’t call him a sparring partner that’s a bit unfair and takes him down several notches of his accomplishments. Has wins over Jackson, Charles, Don C, Holman, mike Dejohn duck Richardson. Had a good career and fought a lot of guys. I scored a few rounds to Valdez though when I did score it. Only a few though.
This to me is the apex of Moore at heavyweight. Moving up and dominating a guy two heads higher! Bro, what rounds did you score for Valdes?
Honestly scored it awhile ago when you first posted it. Would have to rewatch it. I remember it being like the first round or two
Makes sense. Valdes never had great stamina, although he had two good rallies in the latter half of the fight.
