How does Michael Moorer rank as a light-heavy?

You clearly have seen him fight a little but...atsch.

 

But?

 

He looked dangerous, but there's little point ranking him here. Kind of like how people are curious about the power of a Floyd Patterson at LHW, Jimmy Ellis at MW, or Chris Byrd at SMW. Rather pointless since they didn't put their prime effort in at that weight. Just like hypothesizing gym wars or making lists.

 

From about 1988-1990, there was a brief period when the light heavyweight division had started to look interesting for the first time since Michael Spinks had vacated the division.. There were a fair number of half way decent fighters such as Virgil Hill, Charles Williams, Jeff Harding, Michael Moorer and Bobby Cyz, along with some olympic prospects in Anthony Hembrick and Andrew Maynard. I for one was hoping for a unification series, and have often wondered how Moorer would look against some of the other title holders.. Jeff Harding would have probably made for the most exciting match, only because of his guts, chin, powe and tendency to want to slug it out... His bravery would have been his undoing though, and I think Moorer would have stopped him early, after a brief but exciting slugfest.. Prince Charles is not a man who I would have picked to beat Moorer either, but he was a good fighter with underrated ability.... At this time, I Virgil Hill is probably the only man that I would picked to beat Moorer.. He was fast, slick and a very well polished boxer who could take a good punch... An inexperienced Mooere might have struggled against him...

As things turned out, the light at the end of the tunnel did not last for the developing scene of the early 90's light heavyweights, and the scene quickley fell apart. Moorer ascended to heavyweight... Hill was beaten by an aging hearns.. Maynard and Hembrick never amounted to much. Prince Charles was beaten and slowly faded away.. Things would not purk up again until the arrival of Roy Jones, several years later...

 

Back when his nickname was Destroyer... and it was very fitting.

The Destroyer Michael Moorer... sounds good doesn't it?

 

Agreed,

I saw the Leslie Stewart fight, and Moorer was being outboxed rather handely. This was really about the closest that he ever came to meeting an elite opponent at 175, and Stewart was pretty diminished by this point. I may have seen the Franki Swindell fight, but don't recall. Moorer would have had my vote to beat Jeff Harding and perhaps prince Charles, but frankly I think Hill would have outboxed him..

 

Michael Moorer's prime weight was LHW, he just didn't fight there for long...
I liken it to how people rank RJJ as a MW. Many people say that he was not an ATG MW or SMW because his reign was not that long at 160 or 168. The fact is that RJJ, in his prime, would embarrass any MW or SMW in history.

 

I don't think the move improved him. It helped because he didn't have to struggle making weight. You have to remember that he was a chubby heavyweight. He would have been a great Cruiserweight. Moorer always had the skills, but the weight drain sapped his energy. This is why he had hot and cold performances in his last few fights and LH. Had he moved to Cruiser, no doubt he would have been almost as good as Evander at that weight.

 

That could be theoretically true, but there is no proof other then the fact that he came in at top notch shape against 2nd rate competition while other recognized champs. Granted, he did defend that title 8 times in two years. Looking at that stat alone is impressive, but once again it must be recognized where he earned these victories and who he earned the over. It's like saying Bash Ali is the oldest champion ever, yet the title he fought for was nothing (WBF) and the man he defeated had a record of 44-78-8. Recognizing this fact means you'll have to buy into the WBF as well.

You can say what RJJ might do all you want, he never actually did that feat. He never obliterated every middleweight in sight during that time despite that fact that you think he can.

What Michael Moorer did at light heavyweight gave me little indication of his prime weight. Other then the fact that he looked great against WBO ranked fighters. Attaching the fact that he won the heavyweight title doesn't completely mean that he could have obliterated his supposed prime weight class. That's like saying, "Floyd Patterson won the heavyweight title, therefore he would have obliterated any light heavyweight below him".

There's a huge difference between what you do in the public eye and what you could have done. The problem is, what you could have done doesn't mean **** if you didn't do it.

 

Maybe Rumsfield can ask Emanuel Steward about Moorer in part 3. He trained and brought Moorer up through the pro ranks.

 

I have often felt this way too.. I think trying to stay under 180 lbs would have gotten to the point of being near impossible by the time he was in his late 20's, and heavyweight was just not an ideal setting for him... At 185-195 however, he probably would have been at a comfortable weight.