-says world ranked Leon `Hurry Up’ Moore
World ranked bantamweight boxer Guyana’s Leon `Hurry Up’ Moore feels that campaigning in Asia is the right career move for him and that being based in Thailand will give him a faster shot at a world title.
Moore returned to Guyana last Friday evening after winning the World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan Asian Boxing Association super bantamweight title by defeating Singapore’s Marangin Marbun in Sin-gapore.
“Asia for me is an easier way up the ladder in terms of world rankings, who you have to fight, when you have to fight,” he told Stabroek Sport in his first interview upon his return.
Moore also holds the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) CABOFE and Continental Americas titles, along with the World Boxing Association (WBA) Inter-continental and NABA titles.
He is undefeated in his last eight fights and speaking with Stabroek Sport from his Agricola home yesterday, he declared that he was at a stage in his career where he has never been.
“I think right now I’m in the best shape of my life,” he opined.
The victory over Marbun was the 31 year-old Moore’s 26th professional win in his 28 pro fight career.
“I am in top quality shape; I train in a top quality gym.
Prior to that, for the longest while I’m very active so probably now I would say this is one of my best times in my career. I was on a winning spree then I got blemished by people who know that I did not lose to them,” said Moore referring to his only two losses.
In 2006, Columbian Irene Pacheco, handed Moore his first defeat winning by a split decision for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Inter-continental bantamweight title.
Two judges, Milton Mercado and Manuel Arroyo both scored the fight 115-113 for Pacheco while Lionel Mercado scored it 116-113 for Moore.
Moore remains adamant that he had won the fight and later, the two judges were banned for life for tampering with the match.
The Agricola resident in 2007 then suffered a similar fate fighting against Timur Shailezov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for the North American Boxing Association (NABA) bantamweight title.
Nevertheless, Moore said he has already put the two defeats behind him and is focusing on becoming Guyana’s next world champion.
“Those two losses don’t mean anything in my career because when people watch at me they normally say ‘well Leon Moore has two losses, but how he lose and who he lose to’ and that brings a lot of questions,” Moore said.
He added: “Ok fine they say I lost to Irene Pacheco and he got the opportunity to fight Johnny Gonzales for the WBO title and seriously, I think if that opportunity was mine Leon Moore would have been a world champion since 2007.”
Some of the world’s best fighters in the smaller divisions are from the Asian continent including the devastating Philippines world champion Manny Pacquiao.
“This is where you see you can make it fighting out of Asia. In terms of fighting in your weight division and your ratings, for me, Asia is a better port. Look, they have some fighters when I look at them, they don’t have the ability to be there but they are there because is Asia.”
Moore was overawed by the facilities in Singapore.
“It was the first time that I was in such training facilities. I got myself in a new training programme doing some weights, something that I wasn’t doing for some amount of years in my boxing career and a lot of other small things that I was falling short of, it now start to come back.”
Over the years, Moore, who is the highest rated fighter in the English speaking Caribbean, has been fighting in both the bantamweight (118 lbs) and super bantamweight (122 lbs) divisions with a great amount of success and he told Stabroek Sport that to date he is yet to chose which one he will seek to dominate.
“I never really question it because for me, fighting in both divisions feels the same. But I will tell you this, you see, bantamweight is commitment. You have to commit and submit your body to the pressure while fighting at super bantamweight. To me is the same, but at any given time I can put on some more size to go up to feather weight because I already have the height so its no big deal for me which division I fight,” he said.
Looking back at his last fight, Moore said that winning was the only thing on his mind.
“The guy was a tough fella. He told himself that he is fighting very close to his hometown, in his backyard, he stand up real strong until I knock him down. He got up back and continued fighting and he fought me down to the last but I was just too outstanding where in every round I gave a good account of myself,” he said.
“The pressure really came on after all the other fighters won their fights from my training camp and it was because I was the most outstanding fighter in the gym. Sometimes people would look at me and say they wish if the other fighters could be as good as me and since they won, I had to go out there and do my thing,” Moore said.
Soon, he says, he will be heading back to the Far East.
“We had made a proposal to a fighter from Thailand, Sod Looknongyangtoy who said he would fight me. At the last moment he said his arm was broken but then I saw him fighting on TV while in Thailand,” Moore noted.
For now, though, Moore says he intends to spend some quality time with his family and then it would be back to the gym to keep himself in shape.
