I've always admired this brilliant, plucky British boxer but I've always been short on info about him and I'd like to learn more. From what I can gather he was one of the first world class boxers to employ lead straight right hands to the body and punch that became a mainstay for boxers like Bernard Hoplins, Erik Morales, and Floyd Mayweather. I'd love to learn more.
I've seen two films of him against the resident "tough guys" of the era, Battling Nelson and Ad Wolgast. Moran picked Nelson apart in a big way, but was hammered by a brute, swarming attack of Wolgast's and taken apart in the clinches. His DQ's surprise me because Moran to me looked like a fighter who needed room and would have benefited from stricter officiating and shorter distance bouts. I don't really have much insight on his career other than the films, so I'm as interested as anyone else.
I have an old piece on Owen Moran written by a friend of Moran's and probably Britain's most famous boxing writer,Jimmy Butler. He knew Moran from his early day's in Birmingham. There were many boxing people as Butler,Abe Attell,Dumb Dan Morgan ,etc who called Owen Moran, England's greatest fighter excluding Bob Fitz.Moran and jim Driscoll were rivals ,but Moran could never get a shot at Peerless Jim until 1913, when both were past thgeir primes,and they fought a 20 round draw. Owen was a renowned drinker and went downhill after getting stopped by the heavier lightweight champion Ad Wolgast. Nat Fleischer rated Owen Moran as just behind Gans and Benny Leonard at lightweight, so highly thought of was the toughie Owen Moran. :hi:
