By Terence Dooley
If Friday’s eleventh round stoppage of game Andrew Facey is said be Jamie Moore’s last defense of his British title, Moore made sure gave his British fans a scare along the way.
Moore, now 28-3 (19KOs), lost his way a little in the middle rounds, no surprise given his six-months of absence from the ring, before gritting his teeth and felling Facey twice in round eleven to force the intervention of referee Howard Foster at 2:14 of the round.
Facey, who now falls to 19-5-1 (3KOs), had performed well in the middle rounds only to be put down in the pivotal eighth round, both men were caught clean in this session, and, despite a brave effort in the ninth and tenth rounds, Facey saw the fight run away from him irrevocably.
Moore, looked sluggish in patches and at times was forced to push shots out despite finding himself being countered by the short right hands and uppercuts of the erratically eccentric modus operandi of Facey.
Facey, would sometimes work behind his jab before letting Moore move in close so he could time Jamie with short right hands. In fact Facey’s right was a persistent threat simply because he drops it so shortly you can barely see it coming. It pops out from his elbow at unseen angles.
The two men first fought in 2003 with Moore flooring Facey heavily in round two and dominating, largely, on route to a 7th round win. This time, though, Facey was cagey early. As the rounds wore-on, and Moore’s defensive and offensive rhythms did not kick-in, Facey chopped and spoiled his way into the scorecards to keep the fight constantly competitive.
Moore has operated at the British level for 4 years now and is aching, literally after tussles like this one, for a shot at the European title.
Facey is the worst foe to face when the mind, however imperceptibly, is looking forward to new title pastures. Despite this smoking bomb of a fight falling into his lap, or maybe because of the danger, Moore forced the shots out in the middle rounds before timing Facey with 1-2’s from his southpaw stance, with the odd switch to orthodox assisting him in this task.
By the 8th it was looking like the fight had been a crazy one for Moore to take, it was a potentially de-motivating banana skin waiting to slip Moore up.
In round nine, Moore was forced to take the action to Facey. A short counter right hand briefly steadied Moore and his reply was to tear right back at Facey. A trio of right hand jabs, the third almost a straight right from the orthodox stance, set-up a left hand, which put Facey over for the first knockdown of the fight.
Facey got to his feet and stood his ground for the remainder of the round. It had been a pivotal stanza; Moore had sucked it up and was changing the fight with his desire to win.
Facey battled back incredibly well in making a stand in round ten but by this point the writing was on the wall. Moore was landing more often and, as seen in their first fight, when Moore lands on Facey it does have an effect.
It was Moore who came out with the greater zest in the 11th round. A counter right hook, after a clever feint, by Moore was the beginning of the end.
Facey was soon retreating to the ropes under the pressure of Moore, who could see his man was hurt. A burst of shots, three in total, all missed their target, nevertheless Facey slumped to the canvas and a knockdown was, wrongly in my opinion, called.
Facey got to his feet and was soon on the canvas again, this time it was, wrongly, not called a knockdown. Moore hit Facey with a temple shot and Facey paused before hitting the canvas under more pressure, it seemed a clear knockdown but it made no difference in the scheme of things.
Once again Facey found himself trapped on the ropes upon rising. A right hook, left hand and a, missed, right swing saw Facey drop to his knees, a spent force at last. In crumbling as easily as a house of cards in Chicago Facey left referee Howard Foster no choice but to intervene with Facey on his knees.
Moore, who was cut under his left eye, admitted to the Sky cameras that he had had to dig deep in this fight but that the lure of the European title had aided him in this task.
After 4 years of great British title action – the fights with Michael Jones, the war with Matthew Macklin and the drama even of this fight – Moore can move on from the British scene with his head held high. It would be harsh to judge him on the basis of this fight; he had to take on a tough ungainly guy but did so and got the all-important win.
The fight was promoted by Frank Maloney - who was a ringside observer throughout all of the action - and was also televised by Sky Sports.
