ATG BANTAMWEIGHT TOURNIE: Round 1, Fight 7 - MEMPHIS PAL MOORE Vs CARLOS ZARATE

Pal Moore was never the bantamweight champion of the world and is the highest seeded bantamweight never to have succeeded in obtaining that honor at 7.

He did run a “claim” for a while during the first reign of Pete Herman, although it pretty much petered out as the level of Herman’s dominance became apparent; but it is not for a paper title that Moore brushes the top ten, rather for the way he terrorized multiple legitimate champions over a ten year period, winning epic series with each of them. This is worth repeating: Memphis Pal Moore triumphed in extended rivalries with Joe Lynch, Bud Taylor and Pete Herman.

He tackled Herman twice, first in eight rounds back in Memphis in 1915 in what seemed to be a routine win. In 1919 – by which time Herman was the champion of the world – the two met once more over the shorter distance of eight rounds in a non-title fight. Moore was the decided winner, taking as many as six of the eight rounds, out-working and out-boxing the reigning champion of the world. No title shot materialized, perhaps with good reason.

Joe Lynch was the champion of the world in two spells between 1920 and 1921, then between 1922 and 1924; during both spells, Lynch ran into Moore. Before their May 1921 contest, Lynch declared himself as fit as he had ever been in his career. Despite his confidence, he weighed in wearing clothes and shoes in order that he would be outside the weight class and so unable to defend his title. His caution was more merited than his confidence. Despite a wobble in the twelfth, Moore finished the final round “way ahead” of the champion.

They fought a rematch after Lynch had lost and re-won the title but on this occasion Lynch got the better of Moore. In fact, the two fought one of the most epic and under-celebrated series in boxing history, meeting on no fewer than ten occasions; Moore, by most ringside accounts, came out with the slenderest of edges over the lineal champion, going 4-3-3.

Bud Taylor tussled with Moore on four separate occasions, all in no decision bouts and probably before his prime, but appears never once to have taken the best of their confrontations. Two wins for Moore and two draws are generally how their fights are remembered. He also defeated Kid Williams on the one occasion that the two met – yes, Moore is generally believed to have bettered him, yes, it was in a no-decision bout while Kid Williams was the reigning champion of the world, and no, he did not receive a title shot. Moore went 9-5-3 against this murderers’ row of championship competition in a golden age of the division.

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Carlos Zarate’s story is told in blood and punches.

My favorites landed – detonated is likely a better word – in 1975. Zarate was just another contender then, for all that he was one with violence painted upon every canvas he ever stepped upon, thirty three fights and thirty-two knockouts in his terrible wake; his opponent, perhaps was not even a contender. A gatekeeper marked with the name Orlando Amores, he troubled Zarate early, not unusual, many lesser men tested him while he sought them, but when he found them. In round three Zarate countered an increasingly frenetic Amores to the ropes and parked two neat uppercuts followed by a neat hook upon his opponent’s chin. They were not violent punches – they were hardly even flamboyant. They were thrown a little like a drunk emptying two full ashtrays into his garden. But Amores was gone, capable only of rolling onto his stomach, face pressed to the canvas, gloves either side of his head as though in devout prayer, heaving in oxygen.

In 1976 Zarate (seeded 10) deployed said violence against the superb Rodolfo Martinez, cracking him to the canvas in the fifth and breaking him down with those extraordinary, long, luxurious punches, finally terminating his resistance with a right uppercut in the ninth.

The tough Italian Paul Ferreri lasted a little longer before Zarate opened up his face for him. The unbeaten Alonso Zamora, the world’s other outstanding bantamweight, lasted only four before being blasted into the same netherworld Amores had been sent to. When his corner threw in the towel it landed across their fighter’s eyes and he raised himself, more defeated barfly than professional fighter.

Even Alberto Davila, one of the toughest bantamweights ever to live, could not survive him, succumbing in eight.

Zarate’s punches changed men. He introduced them, briefly, to their own mortality.

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Right then, smart lads - who tf wins this one under the following ruleset?:

15 round fight.
1950s referee.
8oz boxing gloves.

Cast your vote and explain yourself in a post below! You have 3 days.

 

Fair enough - but Moore was never stopped by punches in well over a hundred fights. One stoppage - broken wrist. Confirmed iron and he's had as many dust ups with ATG bantams, most of which he won, as Zarate had alphabet title fights.

So fair enough - but brave, brave pick.

 

So Moore for me. I think history has proven that absolute iron for the most part survives rocket-ship power and that's my expectation. Not that Zarate couldn't knock him out but I don't think he would. So I have Moore keeping the pressure on Zarate and slowly starting to build through the early part of the fight into the late middle rounds and taking over with bodywork and awful persistence. Zarate crumbling very late; drops a narrow decision.

 

Carlos Zarate outhits Pal Moore throughout their fight to book himself a place in the quarter finals, consistently hurting "Memphis", mostly on the inside with meathook uppercuts and brutal bodywork. It was a bodyshot that dropped Moore for a "two" count in the fifteenth and sealed Zarate's fifteen round decision victory.