Archie Moore Biography

1913-1998

American boxer

Archie Moore was one of the most colorful and respected figures in the modern history of boxing. His professional career, which included well over 200 bouts, spanned from 1936 to 1963 and included matches against Rocky Marciano, Cassius Clay (as Muhammad Ali was then called), and Floyd Patterson. The world light-heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1962, Moore's most notable match came on December 10, 1958, when he boxed against Yvon Durelle in the Montreal Forum in defense of his title. After being knocked down three times in the first round and again in round five, Moore regained control of the bout and eventually knocked Durelle out to take the fight in the eleventh round. He triumphed over Durelle in a rematch in 1959 and still held the light-heavyweight title through 1962, when it was taken away from him by the New York Boxing Commission and European Boxing Union for inactivity. Indeed, by that time Moore had moved on to a career as a trainer, author, actor, and philanthropist. During his retirement from professional boxing, which began in 1964, Moore devoted most of his time to the Any Boy Can (ABC) program, which he founded to help at-risk youth in San Diego. At the time of his death in 1998, Moore was hailed as "an American original" by Dave Kindred of The Sporting News, who wrote, "No deal with the devil is necessary to write about Archie More because anyone writing about the great man writes a celebration of life."

SELECTED WRITINGS BY MOORE:

The Archie Moore Story, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960. (With Leonard B. Pearl) Any Boy Can: The Archie Moore Story, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.