Archie Moore’s Remarkable Run at the Heavyweight Championship

by B. R. Bearden

A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, so goes the old saying. In the case of Archie Moore, it was a long reach indeed. No other light heavyweight ever tried so hard to become heavyweight champion, nor went at it in the fashion of the man they called the Old Mongoose. For six long, frustrating years, Archie was rated by The Ring as a top contender for the light heavyweight crown. He fought everyone there was to fight; in those six years he stepped into the ring 34 times against Top Ten ranked fighters, winning 26 of those matches, before finally getting his shot at the light heavyweight champion, Joey Maxim. Totally dominating Maxim for 15 rounds he easily won the title by unanimous decision. For most men of ambition, the mountain would have been climbed and the flag set. But Archie was not most men; the Old Mongoose had loftier sights. Three months before Moore became light heavyweight champion, another man had reached the top in the heavyweight division; a short, stocky brawler named Rocky Marciano. Moore stood atop his mountain and gazed across at Marciano and felt a fierce longing to further test his reach.

Of course, there was no cry for the new heavyweight champion to fight the new light heavyweight champion. For Marciano there was still a rematch with Jersey Joe Walcott, fights with Ezzard Charles, and a rematch with Roland LaStarza to satisfy the fans. The Rock had to prove if he deserved to be heavyweight champion or held the crown because of a lucky punch against Walcott in a fight Jersey Joe had won for 12 rounds. The boxing world wanted to see him beat Walcott again, if he could, and passing that hurdle, take on the other very recent heavyweight champion, Ezzard Charles. Should he emerge victorious in those contests, there was still the LaStarza rematch. Roland had come within a whisker of beating Marciano in 1950, perhaps winning in the minds of some fans and sports scribes. There was no open slot to squeeze in the ambitious Moore, a man not even ranked in the heavyweight division.

But Moore had learned something in his quest for the light heavyweight crown; a man might get a title shot because he deserved it, or he had a good manager, or The Ring called for it. Or, he could clean out the division till there was nobody else for the champion to fight. It was a grueling path to glory, one not willingly trod by many fighters, but where it had succeeded once, there was every reason to believe it would succeed again. There was at least a chance, and for a man like Archie Moore, it was all he asked.

So began an episode in boxing history that went mostly unnoticed at the time. It is only by looking back that we may see the pattern emerge and the genius of Archie Moore at work. Moore had the ability to gain and lose weight as it suited him, a combination of hard work and the mysterious diets he employed. Having fought in South America and Australia, Archie boasted of the “secret” diets he’d learned from the aborigines and native peoples of those regions. Whether hoodoo or voodoo, he was able to adjust his weight by as much as 20 pounds while remaining in top shape. For example, in May, 1955, he fought Nino Valdez at 190, in June he fought Bobo Olson at 175, and in September he fought Marciano at 188. In 1956 he fought a string of heavyweights while weighing in the 191-197 range, yet managed to drop to 174 to defend his light heavy title against Ylande Pomper.

To get to Marciano, Moore had to thin out the heavyweight ranks and put himself in the ratings; eliminate the competition. For much of the first half of the 1950s, it appeared as if Marciano and Moore were a tag team. If you were a top ten heavyweight between 1952-1956 you had a good chance to get beat by either Moore or Marciano (unless you eliminated yourself by losing to another of the top ten fighters). At the time it wasn’t as apparent, but Moore set a course which would lead inevitably to a collision with Marciano over the heavyweight crown. It can be said the course was plotted prior to Rocky’s taking of the throne, (though most people in boxing suspected Marciano would become champion), and that Moore was girding up for whoever held the heavyweight title after 1952. Be that as it may, it is that year when Archie’s choice of opponents become unwitting pieces in a masterfully played game.

It went like this:
In 1952 Rocky Marciano beats Top Ten contenders Lee Savold and Harry \\\"Kid\\\" Mathews, defeats two lesser ranked heavyweights (Gino Buonavina and Bernie Reynolds), then tops the year off by taking the title from Jersey Joe Walcott.

Archie Moore in the same year beats three of the other Top Ten heavyweight contenders, Jimmy Slade, Clarence Henry, and Bob Dunlap. He also takes the time to defeat two future Hall of Fame light heavies, Harold Johnson and Joey Maxim, taking the title from Maxim.

The year ends with both Marciano and Moore the champions of their respective divisions, having defeated not only the previous champs, but taking out five of the Top Ten heavyweights between them.

For 1953 Marciano knocks out Walcott in the first round of their return engagement, then brutalizes Roland LaStarza in their rematch for an 11th round TKO.

To keep his hand in play, Moore takes a 10 rounder from Top Ten heavyweight contender Nino Valdez, fights and beats heavyweights Toxie Hall, Sonny Andrews, Al Spaulding and Frank Buford, then drops weight to take a 15 rounder from Maxim to retain his title. Always the over-achiever, Archie also goes down to Argentina to whip two other light heavyweights, Reinaldo Ansaioni and Dogomar Martinez.

Between Marciano and Moore, three more Top Ten heavies have tasted defeat in 1953. Still Moore is not ranked in the Top Ten of the heavyweight division.

It’s 1954 and Archie is making some noises towards a possible Marciano fight but nobody is listening. Not yet.

So, while Marciano twice fights Ezzard Charles in two of the most brutal bouts in heavyweight history, Archie finds time to TKO Top Ten ranked Bob Baker. He also beats heavyweight Bert Withehurst by KO in 6, takes another 15 rounder from Maxim, and TKO’s in 14 future Hall of Fame light heavy Harold Johnson (who had been touted as a possible Marciano opponent by Ring Magazine).

The tag team has accounted for two more Top Ten contenders and now people are starting to wonder about a Marciano-Moore fight. The Ring hints at the possibility as Rocky’s list of worthwhile opponents is getting thin, but Moore is still not in the Top Ten, even though he’s beaten three of the men who are listed for 1954, Jimmy Slade, Nino Valdez, and Bob Baker. Archie decides it’s time to aggressively reach for the brass ring, to make it plain and simple just where his ambitions lie.

As 1955 rolls around, Archie begins a one-man crusade for a fight with the Rock. He issues challenges in interviews, he begins a mammoth letter writing campaign to any and all sports writers, he makes it as clear as Ike’s bald head that he wants to fight Marciano before the year ends. He slips almost unnoticed into the bottom of the heavyweight Top Ten.

Marciano has two credible opponents set for the year, #1 ranked Nino Valdez of Cuba and #2 ranked Don Cockell of England (then current English and European heavyweight champion). His manager, Al Weil, decides the best way to make the cash registers ring is to have a fight in May and another one in the fall, perhaps September or October. They will take Valdez in Miami where he will draw and Cockell in California where he’d already fought a couple times and is somewhat known. It’s decided the best time to fight in Miami is in the fall so the Cockell fight will be set up first. Valdez is disappointed at missing the earlier fight and needs something to keep active and before the public. And now in true mongoose fashion, Archie lures him in.
While the Cockell fight is being promoted for May 16th, Moore works out a deal to fight Valdez in Miami 2 weeks before, on May 2nd. Valdez needs the money and perhaps doesn’t realize the tremendous risk he’s taking by touching gloves with Moore again; a loss could give Archie Nino’s upcoming title fight slot. Moore knows full well the implications; should he lose to #1 Valdez, he drops out of the Top Ten and probably never meets Marciano, but if he wins, how will he be denied? The battles of May decide the course of the fall heavyweight championship contest as Marciano TKO’s Cockell in 9 while Archie takes a 15 round decision from Nino.

At last Archie gets the recognition among the heavyweights and replaces Valdez in the #1 slot. In mid-year, of the Top Ten contenders, Marciano has beaten 3 of them, Moore has beaten 2 of them, and Moore is one of them, sitting in the coveted #1 position. Of the others, there’s Cavicchi of Italy, who wouldn’t draw flies, Earl Walls of Canada, another no-name, no draw, John Holman (see Walls), and the special nut-case Tommy “Hurricane” Jackson, who many fighters avoid “by reason of insanity”. The only viable fight is Archie Moore and in case everyone doesn’t realize it, The Ring has taken up the call for a Marciano-Moore bout as the only worthwhile fight left for Marciano.

Unknown to Moore, though, Marciano has already decided to retire. Back problems, pressure from his family, and the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the champion and his manager have convinced Rocky that it’s time to leave boxing. Rocky is about to push back from the table and leave the game, when Archie ups the ante.

In a campaign of harassment that would make a celebrity stalker proud, Moore goes after the heavyweight champion where it hurts the most; his pride. He takes out adds in papers calling for Rocky to fight him, he gives interviews where he outlines his strategy to defeat the Rock, he has wanted posters printed and placed where Marciano will see them, he sends him notes on the golf course, “Are you afraid to fight an old man?”. Even the Ring is suggesting Moore has a chance to dethrone the Rock “if Marciano gives him a shot”. Called out in such a sustained, public manner, Rocky shelves his retirement plans (which are unknown to the public or Moore) and agrees to answer the challenge of the Old Mongoose.

The resulting fight starts off as if Moore’s master plan were flawless. In the second round he drops Marciano with a perfect right for only the second time in the Rock’s career. For a brief moment, a twinkling in the eye of fate, it appears Archie will hold both the light heavyweight and the heavyweight belts. But the moment is a mere two seconds and Marciano is back on his feet, taking no count, and coming after Moore with a savagery he might not have unleashed on the amiable Moore otherwise. Archie later admits the mistake he made was to drop Marciano early, noting that the heavyweight champ was a slow starter and he meant to get the early rounds in the bank as Walcott had done. By dropping him in the second round, he’s roused the smoldering fire that always burned in Marciano and the result is a relentless, merciless assault. All Archie’s great boxing skill, his cross-arm defense, his feints and moves, can’t keep off him a man he would refer to later as “a bull with boxing gloves”. For eight rounds Moore takes a terrible beating, knocked down three times, saved by the bell in the eighth, and when he returns to his corner with the assist of a compassionate referee it’s obvious the end is near. Between rounds the referee comes to Moore’s corner and offers to stop the fight, the outcome of which is no longer in doubt, and Archie replies, “I too am a champion, and I want to go out like a champion.”

The courageous words of a great fighter, the final defiant gesture from a man who worked so hard for his shot at the heavyweight title. The ninth round starts, Marciano is a whirlwind of fury, and Archie is down for the fourth and last time. In defeat he is as endearing as in triumph; he says he hopes the fans felt they got their money’s worth and he thanks Marciano for giving him the shot.

Archie Moore would have one more shot at the title, fighting Floyd Patterson for Rocky’s vacated title. It is Marciano himself who names Patterson and Moore as the men most deserving to fight for the belt. Moore fights a torrid schedule leading up to the Patterson fight, eleven bouts in eight months, seven of them against heavyweights. It’s too much, and Archie isn’t in the shape for Patterson that he was for Marciano. The result is a 5th round KO and the end of Archie’s heavyweight championship dreams.

The incredible Archie Moore finished with a record of 183-24-10 with at least 141 KOs (some historians state it at 145, but either way it’s the most of any fighter in the history of gloved boxing). He fought 61 times against Top Ten fighters and 15 times against future Hall of Famers. Archie may not have grasped the golden ring he wanted so badly, but it wasn’t for lack of courage or the will to reach for it.