Archie Moore. He sure lived a helluva life. Solving Styles: Reverse Engineering Archie Moore and the Lock, part 1 https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2014/6/...reverse-engineering-the-lock-history-analysis
Just finished the interview. Absolutely brilliant. Will be revisiting this. I found it interesting hearing how Archie looked up to the great boxers of the past, and now people today look back to him.
Maybe I’m being cynical but I’ll be surprised if current fighters know much about great boxers from the past like Archie let alone look up to them for inspiration and guidance. I could be wrong buy it seems it’s only boxing fans on forums like this and boxing writers/historians that are interested in finding out the history and legacies of those former greats of the sport.
Unfortunately, I guess I have to agree with you. The difference with the really top fighters now a days is that they do know some of their history. GGG is a big fan of SRR, and I'm sure Loma and his father studied past fighters to develop Lomas style. However, this seems to be very few and far between.
My dad saw him fight here in Seattle way back in the beginning of the 60's. I think it was against Eddie Cotton. His main memory of the thing was that after leaving the ring, Moore was very delicately and carefully combing his hair, still in his robe and the sweat still clinging to him. He found that odd and kind of funny.
That is true of many modern fighters. At the same time, I know several young fighters that, once they were introduced to the old time guys, began to study them in depth.
I didn't know about his near death experiance at 28. The faith he had and determination was uncommon.
I have his autobiography, was that the beekeeping incident? He was keeping bees for their honey, but one day was attacked by a swarm of them, he got stung by so many of them, he felt like his body was literally on fire. He said thank God it was him and not his aunt, because she wouldn't have survived the attack.
