After his classic battle with Yvon Durelle on December 10, 1958, Archie Moore returned to the heavyweight division on March 9, 1959 in Odessa, Texas. It took Archie only three rounds to stop a professional wrestler named Sterling Davis. Five months later, he dropped back down to light heavyweight, and traveled back to the Forum in Montreal for the rematch with Yvon Durelle. This time, Archie dropped Durelle four times in the third round to retain his title belt. He was still champion at 45 years old, a remarkable feat to me, even as I write this nearly 70 years later!
As the decade of the sixties began, Archie was now 46 year old, and campaigning strictly as a heavyweight. He won his first two bouts of 1960, but lost his next bout in Rome on October 29 against Giulio Rinaldi via a ten round decision. The ‘Old Mongoose’ was back in the ring just a month later, where he won a 10 round fight with Buddy Turman.
Moore didn’t return to the ring until March 25, 1961, and at age 47, traveled to Quezon City in the Philippines to fight Buddy Turman again. Another ten round decision win for Archie, but at this point, if I was alive at the time, I would have wondered why is he even still fighting. I imagine it was money, because I really don’t think at that point in his career, he thought he was going to be the heavyweight champ.
Moore won two more bouts to finish the year of 1961, and two more in March and May of 1962. After boxing to a draw with Willie Pastrano on May 28, 1962, Archie signed to fight the young phenom Cassius Clay on November 15 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Clay toyed with the nearly 49 year old Moore, before knocking him down three times and out in the 4th.
The ‘Old Mongoose’ would make one last trip up the steps, on March 15 against Mike DiBiase, a young fighter making his pro debut. A cut eye ended the night for DiBiase in the third, and also ended of the greatest boxing careers in history.
Archie Moore to me is the top 10 fighters of all time after doing extensive research on his life. He fought a total of 228 bouts, and finished with 199 wins. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 ,and sadly passed away on December 9, 1998. If I could sit down and talk about boxing with fighters of the past, Archie would be number one on my list, that’s for certain. Rest in peace, champ.
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