A deeper dive on Archie Moore's greatness.

I've had a weird fascination with Archie Moore almost since the moment I had learned about him. No fighter has ever drawn me quite as much as him and piqued my curiosity to that extent, with the exception of Harry Greb. And in both cases it was rooted in the talks surrounding them. For Greb it was his sheer otherwordliness, stuff like going 45-0 in a year, being the only conqueror of Gene Tunney, his lack of footage, his apparently great resume filled with fighters I didn't know about etc. etc. But for the Old Mangoose, it was different. My curiosity of him is rooted mainly in the author Springs Toledo, who was also an active participant of this forum far before I had joined. The intrigue started in his ''How to Beat Floyd Mayweather'' analysis articles, where he recalled Jim Murray characterizing Archie as a Ring Mechanic, a man who has all the tools and the knowledge in his disposal to make any machine, or in this case, opponent, break down. Which lead to me having a very good image of him obviously. But it truly ignited in his ''The Gods of War'' entry. But more on the contents of that entry later. Anyway, enough of this, let's go. And just like the Robinson one, this is really long.

It is well known that originally, Moore wasn't the fighter he would later become, as was the case with most greats in that era, and even in history to a lesser extent. Not everybody could be Sugar Ray Robinson, beating divisional number 1's within a year of their pro debut, and having streaks with wins in the couple of dozens. In fact, Moore had not fought a rated opponent until 1939, 4 years and almost 40 fights in his career, that opponent being the #5 Middleweight Teddy Yarosz, whom he lost to. Instead he was mostly winning against very uninspiring competition until Yarosz. He proceeded to draw against a very decent fighter in Freddie Dixon due to a technicality, in a fight he should have won. He lost to Shorty Shoque, a fighter who was basically a fringe contender, but his 2 wins against the respactable Ron Richards, in one of which Moore broke his hand in Ron's head, and some more mundane fighters propelled Moore in the top 10 Middleweight rankings.

However he yet again lost to Shorty Shoque and then drew with Eddie Booker, a member of the murderer's row, a group of Black fighters who would never win the world title, a group Archie could have very well have been on, had history decided to do things differently. It was this fight that Springs Toledo had mentioned that would really ingite my curiosity for this man. You see, Archie had developed Ulcers from that fight, he was 38 days in the hospital, had lost 35 pounds and had nearly lost his life. In an act of compassion, Booker was a donor that played a part in his recovery. He required stomach surgery, and in the hospital he would contract Blood Poisoning, Pneumonia and appendicitis. He would spent almost an entire year outside of the Ring.

What he did in that time period is what really made me connect with this man. As Springs Toledo eloquentely said in a way I possibly couldn't do, ''After self-diagnosing the spiritual causes of his ailment, he picked up a mirror and saw a face etched with tension. It was the face of millions of African American men seething under the surface, held down by invisible chains. Moore found that he was holding on to negative feelings in his heart and it had done a number not only on his health, but on his character. He wrote his own prescription for healing remedies that predated the New Age movement by three decades, he listened to jazz, learned to take therapeutic naps, mastered his pseudo-scientific theories of “breathology,” “escapism,” and “relaxism” and overcame what ailed him. It was an achievement that stands as a monument to inspire us all. Moore went deep into an internal cave and battled the dragons lurking in his own humanity. What emerged was a philosopher-king who took hold of a grand mission and slung it on his back. He would not only honor an old promise made to his aunt to refrain from drinking, smoking, or “doing anything shameful in the ring,” he also made a new one to himself. Before George Foreman was even born, Archie Moore would ignore time and its creaking warnings and force his way through the gates of a kingdom that was rightfully his.''

He may not have been there yet, but the seeds of the Old Mangoose had been planted. And thus his series of fights with the Murderer's row would unfold, and those were likely, the most important of Archie's career.

He would proceed to beat his previous conqueror Shorty Shoque, and beat the #7 rated Middleweight, murderer's row member Jack Chase. Although he would once again draw with the now #8 rated Eddie Booker. Then he would both win and lose against Jack Chase, and would come up short against another Murderer's row member, Little Tiger Aaron Wade. Another win against Jack Chase, but a loss against Booker and the #3 rated Middleweight, the great Charley Burley. After a run of wins against unranked men, Moore would find himself superior to yet again another Murderer's row member, Lloyd Marshall, the #1 rated Light Heavyweight in the world, beating him twice. He would then lose to the wonderful but still unranked Jimmy Bivins, but would beat Cocoa Kid, completely dropping him from the rankings, and would then both win and lose against the #1 rated Middleweight, the great Holman Williams, yet again another Murderer's row opponent.

And then he would face his greatest foe of all, the extaordinary Ezzard Charles, losing his first out of three fights against him. But obviously, there's no shame in losing to Charles. Moore would draw against # 5 rated Light Heavyweight Oakland Billy Smith, as well as Jack Chase, before beating Chase in the rematch by KO. #1 rated Light Heavyweight Charles would once again claim victory over Moore, though in a much more competitive fight this time. #2 rated Middleweight and Murderer's row member Bert Lytell and Jimmy Bivins would come up short, before Moore lost for the third and final time against the greatest Light Heavyweight of them all, Ezzard Charles, in what may have been one of the finest Knockouts we might have ever seen had its film been made public.

#6 and #7 rated Light Heavyweights Charley Williams and Oakland Billy Smith would both be defeated, before Moore got knocked out in 1 shocking round against the #2 rated Leonard Morrow. #6 rated Heavyweight Jimmy Bivins and yet again Oakland Billy Smith would both come up short against Moore, in contrast to #9 Light Heavyweight Henry Hall who would overcome him before losing in a rematch, which is when Moore truly became a force to be reckoned with at Light Heavyweight, leading to a scary streak of destruction in his path. Charley Williams would not go past 7, Bob Satterfield only lasted 3 against Archie, Bivins would go 8, and the amazing Harold Johnson would clearly be outclassed thoroughly. Williams only lasted one round more in the rematch, previous conqueror and now #4 rated Leonard Morrow would get stopped in 10, #5 rated Bert Lytell would only do a bit better than Harold Johnson, Oakland Billy Smith went 8, Jimmy Bivins went 9, #5 rated Heavyweight Karel Sys would fortunately get a draw and the great Harold Johnson would win 1 and lose 2. And finally, after doing everything under the sun to get a title shot, the either 36 or 39 year old Moore would finally get it against Joey Maxim. Moore won practically every round from start to finish and finally became king.

Moore would then start fighting Heavyweights more frequently, first gaining a win over # 1 rated Heavyweight contender Nino Valdes by an utter schooling. #2 rated Light Heavyweight Maxim would have a lot more sucess than before but would still come up short in their first rematch. But their next fight was just a repeating of the first one. #1 contender Harold Johnson would get stopped in 14. Valdes would again come up short. And the smaller but elite Bobo Olson would get stopped in 3. Now Moore was both the Light Heavyweight champion, and the number 1 rated Heavyweight, and the biggest threat to Marciano. Whose undefeated record would suggest that he won the fight.

Archie Moore would still carry on as the Light Heavyweight champion, beating #5 rated Yolande Pompey before attempting to gain the greatest prize in all of sports once more against Floyd Patterson, in what would be a losing effort. #4 rated Light Heavyweight Tony Anthony would fall in 7, and then the legendary war against the #3 rated Yvon Durelle, where Durelle eventually went down four times and got stopped in both fights. The bigger but average Willi Besmanoff would only last 10. Age would finally catch up to Moore, albeit far later that it did just about anyone and resulted in Moore losing to # 5 rated Giuli Rinaldi in a non title fight, before Moore beat him in the rematch clearly and decisively. Moore's title reign was now over. Afterwards he would proceed to beat early Muhammad Ali victim, Alejandro Lavorante, before succumping to the greatest Heavyweight of all time himself. Moore was close to 50 years old.

It is legitimately one of my favorite careers ever. Crazy to think that such a Hollywood type of story exists. The back and forths between the Murderer's row members, including the possibility of eventually belonging in that group due to not getting a title shot, the lossing efforts to the great Charles, the longevity, and the greatest domination that the Light Heavyweight division would ever see after the death of Harry Greb, and maybe ever period.

 

It's definitely a head scratcher. At Light Heavyweight I think it's a 3 horse race between Charles, Moore and Greb. Haven't yet researched the entirety of Greb's career so intricately, and I'm kind of scared of doing it, but from memory his resume at the poundage is just as good as Moore's. Tunney, Loughran, Rosenbloom, Levinsky, Norfolk, Dillon etc, it's so stacked that I cannot say with confidence that anyone's is deeper. Moore of course doesn't lack in names either, and unlike Greb he did win the title and had a great reign. Charles of course has Moore on his resume x3 and shares a lot of similar names with him, and he did mostly perform better than Moore. For now, I am leaning towards Charles with some confidence.

But P4P I certainly think very highly of Archie. I consider him clearly superior to the Fab four aside from Duran, as well as the likes of Chavez, Whitaker, Jones, Monzon, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Saddler, McLarnin, Dixon, Napoles and Griffith. The likes of Canzoneri, Ross and McGovern are closer, but I think Archie still has a much better case than them. Ali and Louis are 50-50 with him, but I remember I did rank Archie higher than Louis a while back, but my opinion on Louis has improved just as much as Archie's. The likes of Gans, Duran, Benny Leonard, Fitzsimmons, Pep and Walker are also very close with Moore, though I do think some have better cases than him. But my top 5 is clear to me. It's Greb, Langford, Robinson, Armstrong and Charles, in that order. And I'm not seeing it changing anytime soon.