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Michael Moorer
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Michael Lee Moorer (born November 12 1967) is a boxer who is a former light heavyweight and heavyweight World Champion.
er is a native of Monessen, Pennsylvania, which is in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
er had a fast but steady rise through the professional boxing ranks. He debuted on March 4, 1988, knocking out Adrian Riggs in the first round.
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Encyclopedia
Michael Lee Moorer (born November 12 1967) is a boxer who is a former light heavyweight and heavyweight World Champion.
Biography
Moorer is a native of Monessen, Pennsylvania, which is in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Professional career
Moorer had a fast but steady rise through the professional boxing ranks. He debuted on March 4, 1988, knocking out Adrian Riggs in the first round. He spent the year taking on a rather ambitious fight schedule, in terms of quantity if nothing else. Before the year's end, he was undefeated in eleven bouts (winning all by way of early round knockouts) and fighting for the world title for the first time. He acquired the newly created WBO light heavyweight title with a five round knockout of Ramzi Hassan.
In 1989, he retained the title six times, beating Freddie Delgado, Frankie Swindell, Mike Sedillo and former WBA champion Leslie Steward, among others.
In 1990, he retained the title three times before the end of the year, beating Mario Melo and former Michael Spinks challenger Jim McDonald, among others.
1991 saw Moorer commence his campaign at the Heavyweight division. He rolled through the competition en route to securing an opportunity to fight for the vacant WBO heavyweight championship the following year. He knocked out Bert Cooper in the fifth round.
He did not defend the WBO heavyweight belt. Moorer and trainer Emanuel Steward parted ways after the Cooper fight. Moorer eventually joined Lou Duva's team, and was trained by Georgie Benton for three fights in 1993, including a 10-round decision win over former champion James "Bonecrusher" Smith.
Moorer then parted ways with the Duvas and Benton, and hired New York-based trainer Teddy Atlas in late 1993. Moorer closed the year with a 10-round decision over Mike Evans. Moorer then challenged Evander Holyfield for the IBF and WBA title belts. On April 22, 1994, Moorer overcame a second-round knockdown and went on to win a majority decision over Holyfield.
In his first defense of those belts, on November 5, 1994, Moorer was ahead on all three judges' scorecards when he received a right hand to the chin by George Foreman in round 10, getting knocked out and losing the world championship. In addition to the belts, he also lost his undefeated record that night.
The following year, Moorer re-grouped by winning against fringe contender Melvin Foster. Meanwhile, Foreman retained the title with a close and controversial decision against Axel Schulz.
Because of the controversial nature of the Foreman-Schultz bout, the IBF ordered Foreman to travel to Germany for a rematch, but Foreman refused, choosing to leave the IBF belt vacant instead. South African Francois Botha travelled to Germany instead and beat Schultz with another close decision to claim the title, but he was stripped of it when he tested positive for illegal substances shortly after.
Moorer was then given the opportunity to fight Schultz for the vacant crown in Berlin. On June 22, 1996, Moorer won the IBF heavyweight crown once again, beating Schultz by a 12 round split decision.
His first defense came against Botha on November 9, 1996. In a brutal give and take war, Moorer was leading on two of the three scorecards going into the 12th and final round, then ended with a flourish, knocking Botha out with just 18 seconds left in the bout.
In March 1997, Moorer retained his belt with a 12 round decision over previously undefeated Vaughn Bean before parting ways with trainer Teddy Atlas, with whom he'd been experiencing an increasing amount of tension since the beginning of their professional relationship. He replaced him with trainer Freddie Roach. On November 8 of that year, Moorer visited the canvas five times in his rematch with Evander Holyfield before ringside doctor Flip Homansky advised referee Mitch Halpern to stop the bout in round eight.
First Comeback
After this, he retired from boxing for three years before returning with a knockout of journeyman Lorenzo Boyd. He won three more fights, then seemingly retired again when he was knocked out only 30 seconds into round one by David Tua on August 17, 2002. However, he returned to the ring once again on March 29, 2003, beating journeyman Otis Tisdale on points over 10 rounds. On August 23, 2003, he beat Brazil's Rodolfo Lobo by knockout in only 64 seconds.
After a layoff of almost one year, he returned on July 3, 2004, losing a ten-round unanimous decision to Eliseo Castillo in Miami, Florida. In December of that year, Moorer rallied from a severe deficit on the scorecards to hand former cruiserweight champion Vassiliy Jirov his first knockout loss.
Following the fight Moorer retired from professional boxing and began to train up and coming fighters.
He is now assistant trainer to Freddie Roach.
Second Comeback
During an August 2006 edition of Friday Night Fights, Moorer stated he was not training boxers any more and was thinking about a come back to fight one of the Russian champions.
Trivia
Moorer scored knockouts in each of his first 26 bouts, placing him in the exclusive list of boxers who have won at least 20 fights in a row by knockout, alongside such other fighters as Foreman, Wilfredo Gómez, Carlos Zarate, John Mugabi, and Aaron Pryor.
After Boxing
Since his retirement, Moorer has frequently done guest commentating on ESPN's fight cards, and also is a boxing trainer.
On December 5, 2007, he was reportedly working as a body guard for golfer Tiger Woods. But in 2009, he became Freddie Roach's assistant trainer in the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California. He worked with Manny Pacquiao for a week before his fight with Oscar De La Hoya and has recently worked with British lightweight Amir Khan for his fight against Marco Antonio Barrera.
Amateur Achievements
- 1986 United States Amateur Light Middleweight (156 pound) champion.
External links
See also
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