[UCLA Library / The Regents of the University of California]
WITHIN the pantheon of legendary exponents of the sweet science, no-one eclipses Archie Moore when it comes to understanding the meaning of the word “struggle.”
A ring career that began in 1935 and ended in 1962 says it all. In between lies a story of such hardship and resilience outside the ring it makes anything he experienced inside the ring child’s play by comparison.
Born in 1916 in Mississippi, Moore grew up in St Louis, Missouri, and began fighting professionally at the age of 20. His record of 214 fights represents an astonishing amount of wear and tear, you might think, but Moore was a master of defence to the point where he rarely took a clean shot.
As antisemitism spread across Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, Benny Leonard and Jack ‘Kid’ Berg became symbols of hope and resilience, writes JOHN WIGHT
From Barry McGuigan and Carl Frampton to Tyrone McKenna and Lewis Crocker, the city’s fighters carry a complex history into the ring, writes JOHN WIGHT