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Davey Moore was an
American
world champion
boxer,
the second of two boxers who shared the name in the late 20th
century, and whose respective careers each ended with death by
trauma
around the age of thirty. This
Davey Moore was born in
New York,
during the championship reign of the first Davey Moore. As a
boxer, he rose quickly through the junior middleweight ranks --
perhaps too quickly, according to some boxing writers and
critics.
After winning eight professional
fights, five by knockout, the
WBA named
him their #1 challenger, and in February 1982, he travelled to
Japan,
where he knocked out defending champion
Tadashi Mihara
in six, winning the WBA world junior middleweight title.
In April of that year he defended it
against
Charlie Weir,
taking five rounds to knock him out, and in July former world
champion
Ayub Kalule,
whom he stopped in ten.
Moore started 1983 by beating
challenger
Gary Guiden,
again by knockout, in four. He had been scheduled to fight Tony
Ayala Jr., however Ayala was convicted of burglary and rape, he
was sentenced the 35 years in prison. Next, he defended against
former two-time world champion
Roberto Duran.
Moore was perhaps overconfident, against an aging 'Hands of
Stone' Duran, but experience proved the key with Duran hammering
shut one of Moore's eyes and stopping him in eight rounds at
Madison Square Garden.
Moore won his next two fights, the first in
Monte Carlo
over
Wilfredo Benitez,
but then he was disqualified in the ninth round against
Louis Acaries
in Paris. In 1985, he won one more fight and was in line to
challenge
Carlos Santos
for the
IBF World
Junior Middleweight title. That fight did not materialize, but
eventually he did get to challenge for the IBF title, going
against
Buster Drayton
in August 1986. Moore lost by TKO in the tenth and only fought 5
more times, winning 3 and losing 2.
One morning in early June 1988, as
Moore was leaving his home, he stepped out of his car to open
his garage door. The car lurched backwards, pinning him against
the door of his garage. He died at the scene |
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