[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.
When Patterson and Liston met in the ring in 1962, it was more than a title bout — it was a collision of two black archetypes shaped by white America’s fears and fantasies, writes JOHN WIGHT
JOHN WIGHT tells the riveting story of one of the most controversial fights in the history of boxing and how, ultimately, Ali and Liston were controlled by others
The outcome of the Shakespearean modern-day classic, where legacy was reborn, continues to resonate in the mind of Morning Star boxing writer JOHN WIGHT