By Terence Dooley
Jamie Moore has been forging a media career since retiring from boxing in April of last year. The former British, Commonwealth and EBU light-middleweight champion lost his EBU crown in a thriller with Ryan Rhodes in October 2009, his next fight saw him retired by corner man Oliver Harrison after six grueling rounds against Siarhei Khomitski on the undercard of last April’s David Haye-John Ruiz WBA heavyweight title fight.
Moore vowed to leave the sport behind when exiting the MEN Arena following the Khomitski reverse; the Salfordian southpaw had struggled with weight and injury issues down at 154, he felt that the move to 160lb would rejuvenate his career. Sadly Moore’s long, hard struggle had taken its toll, forcing him to leave the sport behind.
A new documentary, The Fighters Fighter, will throw a spotlight on this decision as well as focusing on Moore’s bouts with Michael Jones, Matthew Macklin and Ryan Rhodes, a domestic FOTY trilogy of contests.
Moore halted Jones in six rounds back in 2005 to emphatically decide their three fight series. Macklin challenged ‘Mooresy’ for the Lonsdale belt in 2006 only to be KO’d at 1:29 of the tenth after a torrid battle. Rhodes took Moore’s best blows when vying for the EBU title; finishing Jamie in the seventh after Moore had tried to fight his way back from a heavy knockdown.
EBU wins over Michele Piccirillo and Roman Dzhuman brought Moore to the brink of a WBC world title shot, his contest with Rhodes was billed as a final eliminator for the belt. Both Rhodes and Macklin are now set to fight for world titles, against Saul Alvarez and Felix Sturm respectively, and both men count Moore amongst their toughest opponents.
Jamie left the sport with a 32-5 (23) record; he hopes that a major UK broadcaster will pick up the documentary.
The Fighters Fighter preview clip: http://www.vimeo.com/22603852
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