By Terence Dooley
Salford’s Jamie Moore rose to prominence in April 2003, coming in as a late substitute to beat the undefeated Liverpudlian Michael Jones on points to pick up the British and Commonwealth light-middleweight titles. However, he suffered a mid-career slump after losing both belts in back-to-back bouts the following year before getting back into the British title frame and staying at the top long enough to win a Lonsdale belt outright as well as securing the EBU belt. Throughout his career, the aggressive southpaw showed skill, desire and a heart of brobdingnagian proportions.
Ossie Duran, Moore’s in-form welterweight Commonwealth counterpart, took the Commonwealth belt from Moore by third-round KO in June 2004; the loss left him nursing an injured hip. There was no reprieve; his next fight was a rematch with the rangy Jones, a third-round DQ loss for hitting on the break in November that cost him his British title.
Moore’s fall from grace was as sudden as his rise, so his decision to go into an immediate rubber match with Jones in July 2005 seemed a rash move, especially when he was dropped to the canvas twice in round three.
The former champion refused to panic—a knockdown against Clive Johnson in his first fight had taught him to take stock, remain calm and beat the count. Moore did just that, coming back to register a sixth-round TKO win over Jones.
“My career was littered with downs in the middle part, I had to rebound,” said Moore when speaking to BoxingScene. “It actually happened in that third Jones fight—I’m on top then get knocked down twice in the third. That round probably epitomises my career. No matter what happens, I fight back harder.”
Maybe, just maybe, his experience of rising from the deck and recovering from big shots saved his life when a masked gunman fired five bullets at his legs in Estepona, Marbella back in August. Two landed; one fractured his right hip and the other went through his left thigh, tearing through muscle and flesh in the process.
As Moore lay there bleeding, he tried to avoid slipping into what Muhammad Ali called the “Black lights” of unconsciousness. Failing to beat a count in boxing is one thing, but, should he have lost consciousness that night, the successful pundit and trainer would have died.
“When I lay there, I thought that was it for me. To come that close to or be thinking you’re going to die to working the corner [for Tommy Coyle’s second-round knockout win over Michael Katsidis on October 25] so soon afterwards is unbelievable.
“When something like that happens, you can have 10 thoughts within seconds. I saw the guy, said: ‘Sling it’, then carried on walking before turning around and saying: ‘That’s not even funny’—I thought it was a joke. Then he shot me. It was over in seconds, so it’s not a prolonged mental scar—I’m struggling more physically than mentally.
“I never had time to panic or worry until I was lay there thinking: ‘Wow, what’s just happened’. I kept thinking: ‘Come on, take a deep breath and stay conscious’—I felt that if I passed out I’d die. I was fighting. All I thought was: ‘I’m not leaving my kids with no dad’. It’s a gut-wrenching feeling. You know when a dog chases you as a kid and you have that adrenaline because you need to run as fast as you can? It was like that; I had that feeling of adrenaline in my belly. I had to stay awake for as long as I could.
“When I heard the ambulance, I shouted to them and they came over with the stretcher. At that point, I felt my whole body relax. I’d been fighting it so much I passed out.”
Moore had dialed 911 as soon as he hit the ground. However, the language barrier only served to amplify his concern. He said: “At first the operator didn’t understand me. I remember I kept saying to her that if they didn’t trace my call I’d die—I could see that I was bleeding heavily—so the police traced the call and followed my phone. It was 25 minutes before they found me. The bullet lodged in my hip, which will be there for life, is right next to my main artery—if the bullet had hit it I’d be dead within five minutes. I’m a lucky lad.
“When I came around, I realized I was still alive and it was amazing. I’ve said it since, but your perspective changes. Sometimes, you’d come to the gym thinking: ‘It’s just another day in the gym’, now I’m dancing into here and loving it. I appreciate it so much. My outlook on life’s changed.”
Colleen, Moore’s wife, and his parents flew out as soon as they heard the news. After coming around from surgery, his chief concern was how his children, Mikey and Olivia, would respond. “The first time I saw the kids, it was an amazing movement that I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” revealed the 36-year-old former fighter.
“I told them I’d been run over at first, but obviously it broke out on Sky News so I had to ring them and say: ‘You know I thought I’d been run over? I’ve actually been shot’. I said the police had told me I was stood in the road, I heard a bang and thought I’d been run over, but someone had shot me in the leg. Mikey said: ‘Well, somebody shouldn’t have brought a gun out on the road!’.
“I broke it in a way that didn’t shock them, but they know now and can’t quite understand why someone would do that to their dad. That’s the innocence of a child. Olivia’s a little too young to understand, but Mikey knew. We’re best mates. We’ve been so close since he was born, I take him everywhere and I’m his hero, so for that to happen to me will have been horrible for him. He’s getting over it, but it’s been a tough time.”
Moore cannot move freely without a foot brace. His best hope is that his mobility will return to seventy percent of what it once was. “When I was on the floor in Marbella, I thought I was dead, so that’ll do me,” he said.
Predictably, the news led to gossip over the reason behind the shooting, some of it negative. One newspaper went with the caption ‘Kneecapped’ and the type of speculative, colourful copy that is the norm when a boxer is involved in an incident.
“People by nature say: ‘He’s been shot so he’s up to something’—you have to take a step back and ask if I’m really the sort of person to get shot,” was Moore’s summation of some of negative comments that came his way. “Luckily, people in the industry know me and know it must have been mistaken identity.
“Anyone who knows me knows I’m a down-to-earth family man who lives for his missus and his kids. I’ve been punched in the face for 20 years, I’ve got a flat nose and scar tissue. All boxers look a bit rum; it’s the nature of the business.
“The police said there was a lot of Russian and Ukrainians fighting in that area at the time. They said I look like someone who might have come from those countries. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Moore’s a strong character, clearly, yet even the strong bend and buckle a little due to the swift and changeable weal and woe of life. After the initial rush of pure joy brought about on by simply being alive, simple things became a hurdle for Moore, both physically and mentally. “It’s been difficult going to shows because of the attention that this has brought,” said Moore.
“Even going to the school playground on the kids first day at school was a struggle because I didn’t want to go. It was Mikey wanting me to take him to school that made me think: ‘I’m just going to go and get this done’.
“I was laughing because me and Colleen both went and all the mums were coming up to give me a kiss. I said: ‘I’ll have to get shot more often because I’m getting all these kisses in the playground’. It was a tough time. Sometimes you have to take a deep breath and say: ‘I’m just going to do it’, a bit like you do when you go for your ringwalk before a fight.”
He added: “I’m loving life, despite having this incident, and I don’t let it affect me. It’s a mental state, it’s the way you are and the way you look at things. I don’t allow it to bother me because I’d be depressed and down if I did. As soon as I start thinking negatively, I throw the thought out of my head. That’s probably part of being a sportsman—you don’t allow negative thoughts. I won’t let this get me down, I’ll find a way around it. The greatest thing in the world is to look at your kids and to see that they’re happy, so I’m living the dream.”
Although Moore’s the type of person who is willing to face up to anything, a return to Marbella is out of the question. “I would go back, but Marbella’s a swearword to my missus and kids now,” he said.
“As soon as it’s mentioned, Mikey starts listening so it’s a trigger word for him now. How could I possibly do that to them? It would be so unfair to put that stress and worry on them. It would be selfish of me to do that.”
Whatever happens next, Moore’s come a long way since that mid-career blip and a very dark night in Marbella, and is likely to go even further over the coming years.
The full interview appeared in the January issue of Boxing Monthly. Visit the following link to purchase that copy or subscribe to the world's only independent boxing magazine: http://boxing-monthly.co.uk/ .
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