By Terence Dooley
Jamie Moore hopes to put last year’s loss to Ryan Rhodes behind him when meeting Sergey Khomitski on the undercard of David Haye’s WBA heavyweight title fight with John Ruiz at the MEN Arena, Manchester on Saturday night. Moore, 32-4 (23 early), caught up with Boxingscene to reveal the extent of his weight-making difficulties going into that European light-middleweight title defence against Rhodes. The Salfordian was also quick to praise nutritionalist Kerry Kayes, whose name was in the headlines last weekend due to Joan Guzman’s failure to make weight for his vacant IBF lightweight title fight against Ali Funeka.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Moore when discussing Saturday’s fight. “I’ve never boxed on a world heavyweight title bill before so this is a huge opportunity for me. There will be a great crowd and a lot of people watching on TV. I can put myself on the platform again and show I’m back from the Rhodes fight, and then I can enjoy a world heavyweight title fight.
“I’ve got the buzz back again and can’t wait. Let’s not talk numbers or anything but if people found out what I lost (for the Rhodes fight) then half of them wouldn’t believe it and the other half would think, ‘Oh my god!’ But that is all in the past and I try not to look back there too much, my old amateur coach used to tell my to get on the horse after getting beat, and that is what I’m doing.
“If and when I do struggle at middleweight, I’ll step up to super-middle, which will be thriving in a few years here in Britain with the likes of [James] DeGale, [George] Groves and [Tony] Jeffries coming through, either way it will be an interesting couple of years, that’s for sure.”
Moore started brightly against Sheffield’s ‘Spice Boy’ only to come unstuck after taking a subtly placed right hook-cum-uppercut to the chin early in round seven. Upon rising, Moore took the fight to Rhodes only to be stopped at 2:35 of the stanza; consequently, the 32-year-old decided that his body could no longer boil down to the 154lb limit.
“I’ve been able to eat a healthy diet instead of cutting right down so am feeling the benefits of moving up already. If it wasn’t for the knowledge of Kerry [Kayes] and his help in getting me down, I don’t even think I’d have made the weight for the Rhodes fight, never mind put three good rounds in, after that I had nothing left. I look back and wonder how on earth I did it.
“It is still going to be hard for me at 160lb but that shows how hard it was to get to eleven stone. It means I haven’t got that last 6lbs to get off, which is the hardest bit. I looked so bad at the Rhodes weigh in that my mum started to cry when she saw me, she’s made me promise that I’ll never do anything like that again. I’ve promised my wife and family that I’ll move up to super-middle if I can’t make middleweight, there will be no messing about.”
Ironically, Moore stayed at 154lb due to the extra advantages afforded him at the weight, as the years ticked by, however, the struggle to boil down become counter-productive. Indeed, Jamie believes that his innate strength could carry him through to the 168lb division.
“I’d give some advantages at 168 but me and Kerry spoke about moving straight to super-middle as there were such problems getting me down to light-middle. I’ve got the weight down gradually for this fight and will use it to see how strong I feel at this weight.
“I was boxing at the light-middleweight limit for years and it was always difficult but the last two years have been the toughest. I get my body fat levels monitored at Salford University and they were the lowest they’d ever been for that last fight even though I was heavier than I’ve ever been. I’m carrying solid weight and not much body fat so it is time to move up and test things up there.
“The amount I took out of my body for that fight left me with no strength whatsoever. People will see a massive difference in my power, balance and punch resistance; I had no legs in that fight.
“I’ve watched the fight back and cringe over how bad I was. I was all over the show and it was a really bad time. People tell you that struggling with the weight feels the same for every fighter - it is like punching underwater. Even in that seventh round, you could see there was quit in me. It is hard to describe how horrible I felt being in a big fight like that and having nothing left in the tank, it is a horrible feeling.”
Moore has seen Khomitski up close; the Belarusian took Martin Murray, who shares a gym with Moore, the distance in November of last year, flooring the St Helens-based boxer in the process.
“I thought the knockdown was a dodgy call and could have been called a slip but he gave Martin a tough fight,” admitted Moore. “I’ve got the advantage of having seen him in with someone who I know. I can take the good things Martin did and put them into practice and make sure I don’t make any of the mistakes he made.”
A rejuvenated Moore also dropped tantalising hints of a rematch with Matthew Macklin, their 2006 British title epic saw Moore prevail via an eleventh round knockout after Macklin’s early, madcap charge.
“A hell of a lot of people want to see that fight,” said Moore when asked about a possible rematch with Macklin. “It has all the makings of a great fight. Me and Macklin got paid peanuts for the first fight and we’d need a lot of money for the rematch as we’d be putting ourselves through hell again. Matt has given up his European title so may be waiting on a world title shot, if his world title shot doesn’t come off then we could do it again.”
Moore versus Khomitski will be shown as part of Sky Sport’s Box Office HD broadcast of the Hayemaker bill.
Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk