Davey Moore

One of Moore’s early wins was in June 1981 over Kevin Rooney, who would later train Mike Tyson. Moore entered the fight with a 6-0 record, while Rooney was 15-0. Moore won by a TKO in the seventh round of an eight round fight.

After winning eight professional fights, five by knockout, the WBA named him their No.1 challenger, and in February 1982, he traveled to Japan, where he knocked out defending champion Tadashi Mihara in six, winning the WBA world junior middleweight title.

In April of 1982 he defended his world title against Charlie Weir in Johannesburg, South Africa, taking five rounds to knock him out. Then in July 1982 he fought former world champion Ayub Kalule, whom he stopped in ten.

Moore started 1983 by beating challenger Gary Guiden, by knockout in four. He had been scheduled to fight Tony Ayala Jr. but Ayala was convicted of burglary and rape and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Next, Moore defended against former two-division world champion Roberto Durán. Moore appeared to be overconfident against an aging ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran but Duran totally outclassed him and dished out vicious punishment, hammering shut one of Moore’s eyes and stopping him in eight brutal rounds at Madison Square Garden. The beating was so one-sided that Moore’s mother and girlfriend were both said to have fainted at ringside. Many knowledgeable observers believed that referee Ernesto Magana should have stopped the fight far earlier. This was proven to be correct by the fact that Moore was never the same fighter after this contest.

Moore won his next two fights, the first in Monte Carlo over Wilfred Benítez but then he was disqualified in the ninth round against Louis Acaries in Paris. In 1985, he won one more fight and was in line to challenge Carlos Santos for the IBF World Junior Middleweight title. That fight did not materialize, but eventually he did get to challenge for the IBF title against Buster Drayton in August 1986. Moore lost by TKO in the tenth and only fought 5 more times, winning 3 and losing 2.

Moore was killed at his home in Holmdel, N.J., one morning in early June of 1988 when his four-wheel drive vehicle began to roll down the driveway. Caught off guard, he attempted to stop it but was dragged under and pinned there. Paramedics arrived to find him lifeless, the official cause of death being recorded as asphyxiation induced by a compressed chest. He left behind a wife and two young children.