Archie Moore At 27

Upon his return to the United States, Moore separated from his wife; the couple had been married less than one year. Moore also encountered a setback to his boxing career in February 1941 when he was disabled by a perforated ulcer that required extensive surgery. Moore was unconscious for five days after the operation and carried a long scar, shaped like a hockey stick, on his stomach as a reminder of the ordeal. His weight dropped from 163 to 108 pounds during his hospitalization.

Chronology
1913 Born December 13 in Benoit, Mississippi to Lorena and Thomas Wright
1934 Completes twenty-two month term in Missouri Training School
1935 Works in Civilian Conservation Corps
1936 Makes professional debut as boxer
1940 Marries for the first of five times
1940 Boxes on international circuit
1941 Suffers from perforated ulcer
1942 Resumes boxing career
1943 Wins California Middleweight Title in bout against Jack Chase
1952 Wins light-heavyweight boxing title in match against Joey Maxim
1955 Fails to win heavyweight boxing title against Rocky Marciano
1956 Fails to win heavyweight boxing title against Floyd Patterson
1958 Retains light-heavyweight boxing title in match against Yvon Durelle
1960 Appears in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1962 Light-heavyweight title taken away for inactivity
1965 Ends professional boxing career
1966 Inducted into Boxing Hall of Fame
1974 Coaches George Foreman in fight against Muhammad Ali in Zaire
1981 Named by President Reagan to the Project Build sports program
1990 Inducted into International Boxing Hall of Fame
1998 Dies in San Diego on December 9
With his recovery delayed by an appendicitis attack, it took the boxer almost a year to regain his health. Taking a job as a night watchman at a San Diego shipyard, Moore exercised regularly to retrain his muscles and increase his strength. Before reentering the ring against Bobby Britt in Phoenix in January 1942, Moore slipped a metal license plate into his high-waisted foul cup to protect his injured stomach from his opponent's punches. Moore won the fight by a knockout in the third round and continued with a string of knockout victories throughout the year. He ended 1942 with a loss against Eddie Booker in ten rounds. His bout against Jack Chase in May 1943, on the other hand, resulted in a fifteen-round win for Moore. Moore also walked away from the match with the California Middleweight title, which he held until August 1943, when Chase took the title back in a fifteen-round fight.

Over the next several years, Moore compiled an impressive record of wins, with many of his victories coming by knockout punches. Considered a leading contender for the light-heavyweight boxing title by 1946, Moore attempted in vain to set up a title match with any of the successive titleholders of the day, Freddie Mills, Gus Lesnevich, and Joey Maxim. "I took matters in my own hands, as much as I could," he wrote in The Archie Moore Story, "I began a letter-writing campaign to sports writers all over the country. I pleaded, I cursed, I demanded a shot at Maxim's crown." In December 1952, at the age of thirty-nine, Moore finally got his light-heavyweight title bout with Maxim.

Wins Light-Heavyweight Title In 1952
The Maxim-Moore fight took place in St. Louis and the hometown support helped Moore take thirteen of the fight's fifteen rounds, winning by a unanimous decision. Moore defended the title against Maxim in a June 1953 fight in Utah, which he won in another fifteen-round decision. In their third and final meeting, Moore repeated the feat and retained the title by decision after fifteen rounds. Moore subsequently retained the light-heavy-weight title in bouts against Harold Johnson in August 1954; Carl "Bobo" Olson in June 1955; Yolande Pompey in June 1956; and Tony Anthony in September 1957.

As he held on to the light-heavyweight crown, Moore made a number of attempts to claim the heavyweight title as well. His first heavyweight title bout came against Rocky Marciano in a fight staged at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 1955. After knocking down Marciano in the second round, it looked like Moore would take the title. Yet Marciano came back to deliver a knockout blow to Moore in the ninth round that ended the fight. After Marciano retired and vacated the heavyweight title, Moore met Floyd Patterson in a match to decide who would get the crown. The November 1956 bout ended when Patterson knocked Moore out in the fifth round. It was Moore's final attempt to win the heavyweight title.



The reason I fought him in 1962 was not because of me wanting to fight him or trying to prove something, you understand. After all, I was almost fifty years old at the time, and no man that age belongs in the same ring with a youngster in his prime, especially one who had Clay's great talent. I was just fighting him because I had some paper hung on me, in the vernacular of the ring. A promoter had hung a $25,000 check on me that bounced. I had to make it good, and my money was tied up in my house and so on, and I had to come up with ready cash, and the quickest way I could get cash was to fight Clay. So I boxed him. I felt that if I could put together all the things I had learned in my many years in the ring that I stood a good chance of beating him in spite of the age difference, but he was just too much.

A lot of times I've been asked how I thought I would have done against Clay when I was in my prime. Well, truly, the only way I can answer that is to say I don't honestly know. I always went into the ring feeling that I could beat my opponent, but it didn't always happen that way. One thing I can tell you for sure—it would have been an interesting and exciting fight.

Source: Archie Moore and Leonard B. Pearl. Any Boy Can: The Archie Moore Story, 1971.

For his record of knockout punches—estimated between 129 and 144 knockouts in all—Moore was recognized as one of the greatest boxers the sport had ever seen. Although the number of knockout wins was impressive, most critics agreed with Moore's own claim that he was a consummate boxer who thought on his feet, not just a slugger like Rocky Marciano, Rocky Graziano , or Jake LaMotta , to name just a few of his contemporaries. Moore's career was also notable for its sheer length, lasting for twenty-seven years and including ten years as light-heavyweight champion. Unlike many former champions, Moore found lasting satisfaction in his post-professional days as a trainer and philanthropist. "Here I am, my ring days over, gray and balding, teaching young boys, doing what I can to fight juvenile delinquency, doing what I can to make this a better America for all of us," he wrote in Any Boy Can: The Archie Moore Story. "And when one of my boys makes it big I'm proud of him. I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to help…. That is what I am proudest of."



Periodicals
Hirsley, Michael. "Archie Moore Dies at 84." Chicago Tribune (December 9, 1998).

• Please provide a source that the adopted the Armadillo Stance because of his ulcer op.

 

He had his ulcer operation inFeb41.The cross armed defence is to protect the head and often leaves the body exposed.