Battle Hymn – Part 4: “This is Archie Moore Talking”?

Published

11 years ago

March 31, 2014

The Little Tiger’s ring mayhem made managers shy. When the calls got thin, Wade had that trouble familiar to most of us when we’re young and full of beans: he had trouble making rent. In the 1940 Census, he was living at 1004 McAllister Street in San Francisco’s Fillmore district. He had been a professional prize fighter for five years, but could only afford to rent a room in a shoe shiner’s house. He listed his occupation as “trainer,” his industry as “prize fighter,” and his income as “0.”

Late in 1940, another desperate middleweight disembarked at San Diego after a four-month tour of Australia. Wade ate his pork on a shoestring and scanned the San Francisco fog for more meat. Archie Moore preferred chicken, and he too was on the hunt.

Wade and Moore were living parallel lives. Both were born in the South in 1916 and were relocated to northern cities during the Great Migration when they were small children. Archie’s first professional fight, as far as he could recall with certainty, was against Murray Allen in a six-rounder at Quincy, Illinois in 1936 (“I received the amazing sum of $8 for that fight,” he said.) Wade’s first known professional fight was against the same opponent in the same place, in 1935. Had Moore heard Chuck Vickers bragging before fighting Wade that he had “never been beaten by a Negro” in 1939, he would have called him a liar; Moore had knocked him cold two years and a round earlier than Wade.

By 1943, Moore’s reputation for spoiling records was working against him. He was lured into wars with Murderers’ Row and was neck-deep in no time; though he held his own. He fought two draws against Eddie Booker, with two wins and a loss against Jack Chase. The loss to Chase on August 2 was a sore spot. Moore had no alibis, but Muller didn’t believe he needed any. “He is a fighter who seldom clinches,” he wrote. “He doesn’t maul and haul at close range. Instead he lets his punches go when he finds an opening and those blows carry force.” Moore, a proud man unpopular with fellow fighters because of his aristocratic airs, was hell-bent on redeeming himself. His motivation was further boosted by talk of an opportunity to appear on the undercard of the Sugar Ray Robinson-Henry Armstrong fight at Madison Square Garden. That was scheduled for August 27.

In the meantime, he planned to return to his winning ways on the 16^th against “the little man with a big wallop.”

Muller didn’t like Wade’s chances against an elite-level middleweight, though he liked them a little more when he remembered that big fists do better in small rings. “The fellow with the old sockeroo prefers the smaller ring, a sixteen or an eighteen footer,” Muller wrote. “He doesn’t have to travel too far to catch his adversary.” The ring at National Hall, where Wade sent Ray Campo into resin-specked tranquility, was sixteen-feet square. The ring at the Coliseum Bowl, where R.J. Lewis never saw round two and where Harvey Massey was stopped twice, was also sixteen-feet square.

At just under six-feet tall, Moore had to drop his chin to his chest to look at Wade. He had a wingspan of 76 inches and hit like Babe Ruth, but he wasn’t the puncher in this match-up. He was something of a mobile boxer when he was in his twenties, and mobile boxers prefer big rings. Sugar Ray Leonard, for example, insisted on a twenty-foot ring when he faced Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987; and that’s just one reason why Moore’s greatness exceeds Leonard’s.

Moore would face Wade at Coliseum Bowl in a puncher’s ring.

He emerged from the dressing room in what he called a “bad frame of mind.” Despite the high praise by Eddie Muller, Moore’s confidence may have been shaken by the loss to Jack Chase. Alternatively, he may have been overconfident; after all, Chase tamed Wade only two months earlier. In fact, Chase did it with relative ease after being wobbled twice early. “We’ve seen Wade in a number of fights,” Muller wrote after Chase took a ten-round decision. “It’s doubtful if he took as many punches in any other fight as he did when Chase started to pour the leather.” Moore was almost certainly at ringside that night, watching carefully.

However Moore felt going in to fight Wade, he felt worse coming out. Muller’s surprisingly brief fight report reads like he lost his shirt betting on Moore:

Aaron “Little Tiger” Wade scored a stunning upset in Coliseum Bowl last night when he scored a decisive victory over Archie Moore of San Diego in the ten round main event. Wade won all the way. Moore was a 2 to 1 favorite. They are colored middleweights .

Moore had misread the situation. While it was true that Wade had lost two of his previous fifteen bouts, the names that beat him were on the roll call of Murderers’ Row. Worse still, after he “won all the way” against the fifth-rated middleweight in the world, no one seemed to notice. In the September 14 issue of The Ring, Moore was dropped from fifth to eighth in the ratings, presumably as a result of the upset; yet his conqueror is nowhere to be found in the top-ten. It’s puzzling. Had Moore fought again and won; or had Wade lost during the time between their bout and the next issue of The Ring, it would have explained the omission. But neither had.

I contacted boxing historian Alister Scott Ottesen to ask if the editors may have somehow missed the Wade-Moore bout. He sent along a fight report from the same September issue. He also mentioned that the ratings at the time seemed to emphasize a contender’s ‘body of work’ while discounting fluke losses. Given the accelerated rate of fighting during an era far more competitive than today, this would make some sense. To that point, the fight report does acknowledge that “Wade-Moore was an upset” and that Moore “did not perform at his best.” However, the report also acknowledged “the fact that Wade rates up there with the good ones,” which means that Wade’s victory was not considered a fluke —an upset, yes, though not a fluke.

A closer look at the issue raises another problem. Rated tenth since August 10 was a black fighter named Frankie Nelson. What had he done to earn that spot? Not much. He won two bouts in two days against never-weres with non-winning records.

In the end, The Ring’s omission of Wade looks like yet another example of the hard luck on Murderers’ Row.

Charley Burley’s hard luck is well-documented. Widely considered to be the greatest uncrowned champion since Sam Langford, Burley was just as broke as Wade and Moore.

“Fighting Charley Burley was almost inhuman,” Moore said years after they fought in April 1944. Knocked down three times when Burley slung rights off his jaw, Moore went down for a fourth time when Burley hit him with a jab that came up like a steam shovel from the hip. The Los Angeles Times reported that Moore, a master boxer, “was in sorry condition” at the finish. The left side of his face was disfigured and swollen and his pride was somewhere under the ring.

Burley was rated by The Ring as the number-one middleweight contender when he signed to fight the Little Tiger. Wade, no respecter of reputations or ratings, went at him with both fists. Burley was able to absorb what his serpentine style didn’t ride out or roll under, but Wade was forcing the action. Burley fought the first five rounds as he usually did, off the back foot. In round six, he sprang off that back foot and landed a surprise right to the chin that sagged Wade’s knees. Wade clinched to clear his head and Burley kept his distance over the remaining rounds to escape with a decision.

Alan Ward of the Oakland Tribune, Will Connolly of the San Francisco Chronicle, and most ringsidersthought Wade deserved the nod.

The next two matches followed the pattern established in the first, and Burley won those too. It seemed that once both punchers had gauged the other’s power, they decided against valor. The rematch, said The Bend Bulletin, was “dull” with many clinches and the Pittsburgh Press reported Burley-Wade III as “listless” with both keeping “a safe distance from each other at all times.”

In the summer of 1945, Burley was back in the East hoping for big money fights that would never materialize. The Pittsburgh Press tells history how bad he had it:“Every good middleweight around has been offered a fat purse to step into the ring with Burley,and each one in turn has nixed the proposition.” Among them was Sugar Ray Robinson. Burley was willing to fight him for nothing. “They can give him my purse too,” he said. Robinson, said the Press, “prefers to keep his reputation and let Burley and the local promoters keep the $20,000 they offered for the night’s work.”

Moore had the same high hopes as Burley and left San Diego for New York. “I figured that I could get in on some of that big money that was floating around,” he said. On his way, his car broke down in Bedford, Pennsylvania. When he found out it would cost $400 for repairs, he left it there and took a bus to the Big Apple. He borrowed $25 for expenses, took a room at the YMCA, and began training at Stillman’s Gym. His new manager got him fights, and, said Moore, “I was moving along pretty good, but pretty soon I found that I was up against the same old bugaboo.” In other words, he was looking too good. When Moore knocked out a 6’4 heavyweight in Boston, fight managers went fishing in their pockets for a ‘stay-away’ tag.

……

Thirty years after Wade, Moore, and Burley were forced to fight each other to make a living, Wade was back in San Francisco and sitting with Eddie Muller, who was still covering boxing for the Examiner. He told Muller about a phone call he had recently received at home. The caller didn’t give his name at first but sounded vaguely familiar.

“He asked if I was an old-time boxer,” Wade told Muller.

“I told him I was. He said, ‘Did you fight Eddie Booker?’ I said, no. ‘Did you fight a guy named Charley Burley?’ I told him I had. ‘How about Archie Moore?’ I told him I beat Moore.

“Then he asked, ‘Who was the better fighter, Burley or Moore?’ I said, ‘Why of course, Burley.’

“Then he laughed and said, ‘This is Archie Moore talking.’”

The photograph (Archie Moore, 1940s) appears courtesy of Boxrec.com. Information regarding Archie Moore found in Any Boy Can by Archie Moore, p. 207, 208-209, (on Burley, 187); Moore-Allen recalled in The Ring (September 1955), San Francisco Examiner 8/12/43, and “Archie Moore, The Master Technician” in The Ring 9/45; Information regarding Charley Burley found in San Francisco Examiner 3/4/43, 6/21/43, 7/16/43; Los Angeles Times, 4/22/44, Oakland Tribune, 3/4/43, Pittsburgh Press 8/17/45.

Special thanks to Alister Scott Ottesen.

Springs Toledo can be contacted at scalinatella@hotmail.com .

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Skylar Lacy Blocked for Lamar Jackson before Making his Mark in Boxing

Published

1 day ago

January 19, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Skylar-Lacy-Blocked-for-Lamar-Jackson-Before-Making-his-Mark-in-Boxing

Skylar Lacy, a six-foot-seven heavyweight, returns to the ring on Sunday, Feb. 2, opposing Brandon Moore on a card in Flint, Michigan, airing worldwide on DAZN.

As this is being written, the bookmakers hadn’t yet posted a line on the bout, but one couldn’t be accused of false coloring by calling the 10-round contest a 50/50 fight. And if his frustrating history is any guide, Lacy will have another draw appended to his record or come out on the wrong side of a split decision.

This should not be construed as a tip to wager on Moore. “Close fights just don’t seem to go my way,” says the boxer who played alongside future multi-year NFL MVP Lamar Jackson at the University of Louisville.

A 2021 National Golden Gloves champion, Skylar Lacy came up short in his final amateur bout, losing a split decision to future U.S. Olympian Joshua Edwards. His last Team Combat League assignment resulted in another loss by split decision and he was held to a draw in both instances when stepping up in class as a pro. “In my mind, I’m still undefeated,” says Lacy (8-0-2, 6 KOs). “No one has ever kicked my ass.”

Lacy was the B-side in both of those draws, the first coming in a 6-rounder against Top Rank fighter Antonio Mireles on a Top Rank show in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and the second in an 8-rounder against George Arias, a Lou DiBella fighter on a DiBella-promoted card in Philadelphia.

Lacy had the Mireles fight in hand when he faded in the homestretch. The altitude was a factor. Lake Tahoe, Nevada (officially Stateline) sits 6,225 feet above sea level. The fight with Arias took an opposite tack. Lacy came on strong after a slow start to stave off defeat.

Skylar will be the B-side once again in Michigan. The card’s promoter, former world title challenger Dmitriy Salita, inked Brandon Moore (16-1, 10 KOs) in January. “A capable American heavyweight with charisma, athleticism and skills is rare in today’s day and age. Brandon has got all these ingredients…”, said Salita in the press release announcing the signing. (Salita has an option on Skylar Lacy’s next pro fight in the event that Skylar should win, but the promoter has a larger investment in Moore who was previously signed to Top Rank, a multi-fight deal that evaporated after only one fight.)

Both Lacy and Moore excelled in other sports. The six-foot-six Moore was an outstanding basketball player in high school in Fort Lauderdale and at the NAIA level in college. Lacy was an all-state football lineman in Indiana before going on to the University of Louisville where he started as an offensive guard as a redshirt sophomore, blocking for freshman phenom Lamar Jackson. “Lamar was hard-working and humble,” says Lacy about the player who is now one of the world’s highest-paid professional athletes.

When Lacy committed to Louisville, the head coach was Charlie Strong who went on to become the head coach at the University of Texas. Lacy was never comfortable with Strong’s successor Bobby Petrino and transferred to San Jose State. Having earned his degree in only three years (a BA in communications) he was eligible immediately but never played a down because of injuries.

Returning to Indianapolis where he was raised by his truck dispatcher father, a single parent, Lacy gravitated to Pat McPherson’s IBG (Indy Boxing and Grappling) Gym on the city’s east side where he was the rare college graduate pounding the bags alongside at-risk kids from the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

Lacy built a 12-6 record across his two seasons in Team Combat League while representing the Las Vegas Hustle (2023) and the Boston Butchers (2024).

For the uninitiated, a Team Combat League (TCL) event typically consists of 24 fights, each consisting of one three-minute round. The concept finds no favor with traditionalists, but Lacy is a fan. It’s an incentive for professional boxers to keep in shape between bouts without disturbing their professional record and, notes Lacy, it’s useful in exposing a competitor to different styles.

“It paid the bills and kept me from just sitting around the house,” says Lacy whose 12-6 record was forged against 13 different opponents.

As a sparring partner, Lacy has shared the ring with some of the top heavyweights of his generation, e.g., Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. He was one of Fury’s regular sparring partners during the Gypsy King’s trilogy with Deontay Wilder. He worked with Joshua at Derrick James’ gym in Dallas and at Ben Davison’s gym in England, helping Joshua prepare for his date in Saudi Arabia with Francis Ngannou and had previously sparred with Ngannou at the UFC Performance Center in Las Vegas. Skylar names traveling to new places as one of his hobbies and he got to scratch that itch when he joined Whyte’s camp in Portugal.

As to the hardest puncher he ever faced, he has no hesitation: “Ngannou,” he says. “I negotiated a nice price to spend a week in his camp and the first time he hit me I knew I should have asked for more.”

Lacy is confident that having shared the ring with some of the sport’s elite heavyweights will get him over the hump in what will be his first 10-rounder (Brandon Moore has never had to fight beyond eight rounds, having won his three 10-rounders inside the distance). Lacy vs. Moore is the co-feature to Claressa Shields’ homecoming fight with Danielle Perkins. Shields, basking in the favorable reviews accorded the big-screen biopic based on her first Olympic journey (“The Fire Inside”) will attempt to capture a title in yet another weight class at the expense of the 42-year-old Perkins, a former professional basketball player.

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Mizuki Hiruta Dominates in her U.S. Debut and Omar Trinidad Wins Too at Commerce

Published

3 days ago

January 18, 2025

David A. Avila

Mizuki-Hiruta-Dominates-in-her-U.S.-Debut-and-Trinidad-Wins-Too-at-Commerce

Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta smashed through Mexico’s Maribel Ramirez with ease in winning by technical decision and local hero Omar Trinidad continued his assault on the featherweight division on Friday.

Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs), who prefers to be called “Mimi,” made her American debut with an impressive performance against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez (15-11-4) and retained the WBO super flyweight world title by unanimous decision at Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

The pink-haired Japanese southpaw champion quickly proved to be quicker, stronger and even better than advertised. In the opening round Ramirez landed on the floor twice after throwing errant blows. On one instance, it could have been ruled a knockdown but it was not a convincing blow.

In the second round, Ramirez again attacked and again was met with a Hiruta check right hook and down went the Mexican. This time referee Ray Corona gave the eight-count and the fight resumed.

It was Hiruta’s third title defense but this time it was on American soil. She seemed nervous by the prospect of getting a favorable review from the more than 700 fans inside the casino tent.

For more than a year Hiruta has been training off and on with Manny Robles in the L.A. area. Now that she has a visa, she has spent considerable time this year learning the tricks of the trade. They proved explosively effective.

Though Mexico City’s Ramirez has considerable experience against world champions, she discovered that Hiruta was not easy to hit. Often, the Japanese champion would slip and counter with precision.

It was an impressive American debut, though the fight was stopped in the eighth round after a collision of heads. The scores were tallied and all three saw Hiruta the winner by scores of 80-71 twice and 79-72.

“I’m so happy. I could have done much more,” said Hiruta through interpreter Yuriko Miyata. “I wanted to do more things that Manny Robles taught me.”

Trinidad Wins Too

Omar Trinidad (18-0-1, 13 KOs) discovered that challenger Mike Plania (31-5, 18 KOs) has a very good chin and staying power. But over 10 rounds Trinidad proved to be too fast and too busy for the Filipino challenger.

Immediately it was evident that the East L.A. featherweight was too quick and too busy for Plania who preferred a counter-puncher attack that never worked.

“He was strong,” said Trinidad. “He took everything.”

After 10 redundant rounds all three judges scored for Trinidad 100-90 twice and 99-91. He retains the WBC Continental Americas title.

Other Bouts

Ali Akhmedov (23-1, 17 KOs) blasted out Malcolm Jones (17-5-1) in less than two rounds. A dozen punches by Akhmedov forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the super middleweight fight.

Iyana “Roxy” Verduzco (3-0) bloodied Lindsey Ellis in the first round and continued the speedy assault in the next two rounds. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the fight in favor of Verduzco at 1:34 of the third round.

Gloria Munguilla (7-1) and Brook Sibrian (5-2) lit up the boxing ring with a nonstop clash for eight rounds in their light flyweight fight. Munguilla proved effective with a slip-and-counter attack. Sibrian adjusted and made the fight closer in the last four rounds but all three judges favored Munguilla.

More Winners

Joshua Anton, Tayden Beltran, Adan Palma, and Alexander Gueche all won their bouts.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Published

5 days ago

January 16, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.

Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.

Hopefully the worst is over.

Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.

Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.

“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.

He knows talent.

Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.

Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.

Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.

Can Trinidad reach world title status?

Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.

It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.

Mizukii Hiruta

Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.

Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Boxing and the Media

The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.

Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.

Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.

Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.

MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.

Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.

Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.

It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.

Photos credit: Lina Baker

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