The Fight of the Year: Moo

By Ant Evans: Since its summer 2000 inception SecondsOut has sought and attracted an international readership. Headquartered in London but with contributors and editors based across the world, we have prided ourselves on keeping a truly global perspective while covering the sport of boxing. As long as it's a good fight between good fighters, SecondsOut will be there, irrespective of nationality or any lack of celebrity.

But the economic realities of big time boxing are such that the world's best fighters, be them British (Ricky Hatton), Puerto Rican (Miguel Cotto), Filipino (Manny Pacquiao), Ukrainian (Wladimir Klitschko) or Mexican (Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera et al) base their careers in the United States, where they can be bankrolled by US cable network and Las Vegas casino money.

Moreover, the biggest fights in the US are almost always televised not only in America, but are picked up by broadcasters across the world. So, the reality is that more fans will get the chance to see a good fight which takes place on a HBO card than a fantastic fight which takes place in Europe or the Far East.

So, it is with some pride that I announce that for the first time in the seven year history of the SecondsOut Reader Awards, a fight which did NOT take place on US soil has been voted as the Fight of the Year.

On September 29 in what Englishmen call a 'leisure centre' or 'working man's club' in Manchester, in the north of England, 28-year-old junior middleweight Jamie Moore defended his British Championship against Matthew Macklin. It was what is commonly referred to by die-hard fans as "a trade fight", meaning that anyone who knows their boxing understood what a terrific match-up it was even if casual followers of the sport did not.

As it was, Moore's tenth round knockout of his rival actually exceeded expectations. It was a brutal three-act action movie of a fight where the viewer got black eyes just from watching it on TV.

It was also a fight which nearly didn't happen, though, as Moore explained to SecondsOut. He said: "I'd been British Champion twice and had been at British Title level for three and a half years. I really thought it was time to move onwards and upwards; but then Matt was getting a lot of attention with some impressive wins and I realized a lot of fans were really looking forward to the fight."

Moore was faced with a choice. Vacate the British Title and leave himself open to accusations that he was avoiding a showdown with Macklin, or defend against an opponent many believed was a future world title contender for relatively low money on a relatively small stage.

To a fighter like Jamie Moore - who is universally respected by his fellow fighters as a warrior - that's really no choice at all.

He said: "My pride wouldn't let me just give this belt up and let someone else be able to make the claim that I gave it up because I was afraid or anything. But I said even as I signed the contract that this was a fight for two years down the line, for a European Title if not a World title. But it had to happen in September 2006 and, well, so be it."

Likewise Macklin didn't want to fight for a vacant title. He said: "I didn't want to pick up the British Title after Jamie had vacated and have people say 'Yeah, but Jamie Moore is still the best in Britain'. I wanted to take the title off of Jamie - I didn't want him to hand it to me while he moved onward to a European Title fight or something."

Moore adds: "It may be difficult for American or other (non-British) SecondsOut readers to understand, but to every single British fighter the Lonsdale Belt is the biggest thing in boxing. Every kid who turns pro wants one of them belts. They're just beautiful things, made with real gold, and are much better looking than any world title belt. And they've got such history to them - they go back nearly a century and are twice as old as even the WBA or WBC belts.

"What's more, you only get to get the actual belt if you defend the British Title three times. My mate Ricky Hatton (who won the British junior welterweight title in 2000 but never defended it) says his one main regret is that he never won the Lonsdale Title outright. And that's a two-time world champion who's won the undisputed title talking! That should give you an idea of how seriously British fighters take these fights."

Macklin, who has deep roots in both Ireland and England, concurred: "I could have gone and based my entire career in Ireland or even America like a lot of Irish fighters do, but I wanted to be British Champion."

The heart-scorching passion of the two fighters was clear from the very fist bell. Ignoring trainer Billy Graham's instructions to use his height and reach advantage, Macklin tore into the champion and went right after the knockout.

"I wanted to win by a big KO," Macklin admits. "I respected Jamie because he'd got off the floor to win before but I thought that I could be the one to keep him on the floor. Billy was screaming at me to get back to the plan when I got back to the corner but it was already too late."

Indeed - war had been declared and war had been accepted.

"I was expected him to try and impose himself on me," Moore said. "I knew he was strong and tough but I've been at a higher level than him for a few years now. While it may have looked like I was having a life and death fight with him to people at the back of the hall, all the while I was making him miss more than he landed, I was countering, smothering his shots, rolling (with the punches). I'm not going to pretend he didn't have his moments - big moments, because he hurt me - but I knew exactly what to do to ensure I came out in the later rounds with more in the tank than him."

Macklin landed meaty blows every 10 seconds or so but it was Moore who looked to be the least uncomfortable of the two men. He was the one turning his opponent, he was the one who occasionally bossed the fight despite having his back against the ropes.

The pair fought on level terms for seven rounds in a Gatti v Ward type fight. At times, the bout resembled a PlayStation game with both players bashing away at each other with seemingly inhuman levels of energy and punch resistance.

But, slowly and surely, Moore's plan to siphon off the best of Macklin's resources yielded results.

"I could feel him tiring up close as early as the fourth," the champion said. "I could feel him weakening as early as the forth round to be honest. But, to be fair, from them on he didn't tire any more. A couple of times he felt like he was spend but then he'd fire back at me and I'd need to cover up. It was a real battle of attrition. Honestly, I couldn't believe some of the shot he was taking and he's told me the same."

Although ahead on points on some neutrals' scorecards, by the eighth Macklin had been reduced to yanking his fists up from knee height in order to get any power into them. Moore continued to fight off the ropes when he needed to, but now appeared to be getting on top of the Birmingham-based challenger.

And yet, somehow, Macklin found a reserve of energy buried deep within himself and the ninth was the round of the entire fight.

In the final seconds of the round Moore slammed in five successive uppercuts as an utterly exhausted Macklin laid against him on the ropes. Macklin was fighting on willpower alone now - yet incredibley still managed to rally with some hard right hands and left hooks at the end of the round. But that was it. That was his final ounce of energy spent.

Macklin bravely staggered forwards again in the tenth but southpaw Moore exploded a thunderbolt cross to the jaw. The referee's count was waved off as Macklin lay motionless and facedown on the canvas.

Moore, too, had blasted through almost all his reserves of energy. Victory had sold itself dearly. Even more impressive, though, was the fact Moore had won this fight while fighting with a pretty serious shoulder injury. He went under the knife and had bone shaved off his joint 10 days after winning the fight of his life.

A daily visitor to SecondsOut, Moore said: "I really want to thank all the SecondsOut readers who voted for me. It's some achievement for a British Title fight to win this Award, because not only was my fight up against some pretty amazing scraps but more people will have seen some of the other fights as mine and Matt's was only seen in Britain.

"So I want to thank every British fans who obviously got behind this fight and wanted it to win. I'm glad you think you got value for money and I hope I can replay your support by winning a world title in 2007. It is really important to me that people walk home or turn off their TV set after my fights thinking they've had value for money and it means a lot to me that they felt they got more than their money's worth for this fight."

Macklin, too is proud that boxing fans appreciated his epic efforts. He said: "I'd have liked to have been voted in a Fight of the Year for one I won, but I'm happy the fans got to see such an exciting fight.

"I've rather go out flat on my face like I did than do what I could have done which was to run for the rest of the fight. That's not me and hopefully the fans who voted for this fight will have reason to vote for me in 2007 for a fight I've won."

Placing a very close second, and further underlining that SecondsOut readers are among the most knowledgeable pugilist-specialists in the world, is the sublime savagery that was Somsak Sithchatchawal's tenth round KO of Mahyar Monshipour.

My personal choice as the best fight of 06, nine months on from when this relatively obscure fight for the WBA super-bantamweight title took place in Paris, it has become a cult favourite on YouTube. Almost as good as Corrales v Castillo I and actually better than any of the Morales v Barrera, Morales v Pac-Man or Gatti v Ward fights, local challenger Monshipour was dropped in the first round and ate 57 (57!) uppercuts in the opening three rounds but roared back and fought the Thai champ tooth and claw until going down in a blaze of glory in the tenth.

You guys voted Tomasz Adamek's repeat win over Paul Briggs in third place. Perhaps even better than their 2005 war for a version of the light heavyweight title, unlike the original classic this fight was shown on HBO. The Polish champ and Aussie challenger did not disappoint: Briggs looked booked for a revenge win when he dropped the champ in the opening round. Yet Adamek, who will now go on to fight top US prospect Chad Dawson, got up and took a wafer thin decision in a perfect fight which should be in every true fan's DVD collection.

In fourth place came John Duddy's savage 12 rounder with Yori Boy Campas in New York in September. What was supposed to be a scalping exercise for the rising Irish star became a blood bath as Duddy was cut and nearly knocked out in the second. He came roaring back, fighting the faded ex-champ tooth and claw, but was sliced open again in the middle rounds and nearly knocked out again in the last. It remains to be seen whether Duddy will ever become a world class fighter, but here he and Campus served up a pulsating night of action worthy of medal if not a title belt.

Finally, votes came in for the best heavyweight fight of the year: the April throwdown between the ever-entertaining Lamon Brewster and Sergei Liakhovich for the WBO title in Cleveland. The pair blasted away at the other from the opening bell; Brewster knocked 'the White Wolf' down to one knee in the seventh but was hurt and nearly KO'd in the later rounds. Liakhovich took a close decision but Brewster, who hasn't fought since, later revealed he had suffered a detached retina early in the fight - making his performance all the more remarkable.

Previous winners of SecondsOut's Fight of the Year award:

2005: Corrales v Castillo I

2004: Barrera v Morales III

2003: Lewis v Klitschko

2002: Ward v Gatti I

2001: Gonzalez v Letterlough

2000: Morales v Barrera I