Tragic Champions: Davey Moore

[BoztheMadman]

One of the first famous ring victims and tragic champions was Davey Moore, the world featherweight champion from 1959 to 1963. So infamous was his death in the ring on 25 March 1963, that Bob Dylan wrote and recorded a song about it, titled “Who Killed Davey Moore?” His conqueror Sugar Ramos therefore was never a very popular champion. Moore was a fine champion and a fine boxer who was technically able and could hit hard enough too. He stood only 5’2 and a half or 159 cm and had a reach of 66” or 166 cm. His fighting alias was “Springfield Rifle”. 
 

David Schultz Moore was born on 1 November 1933 in Lexington, Kentucky, but grew up in Springfield, Ohio, hence his alias. As amateur, he first won the 1951 Intercity Golden Gloves, representing Chicago. He also won the US championship in 1952 and then qualified for the Helsinki Olympics that year. He advanced to the quarterfinals (as bantamweight), where he lost a 1-2 decision to Joo-Ho Kang of Korea. He turned pro 11 May 1953 and fought mostly as a featherweight, sometimes as high as lightweight. His early career was unsuccessful and he lost five times on points, but started a successful run in 1957. Eventually, he got to fight for the world championship against Hogan Kid Bassey on 18 March 1959 in Los Angeles and stopped Bassey by a corner retirement after 13 rounds, being well ahead on all cards. They had a rematch on 19 August and again Bassey quit, after 10 rounds this time. 
 

After having a series of non-title fights, he did something unwise and took on the future light welterweight champion, Carlos “Morocho” Hernandez, even coming to his hometown of Caracas, Venezuela to fight him. Hard punching Hernandez put him down five times before Moore retired in his corner after 7 rounds. He finally made his second defense as champion on 29 August ‘60 against Kozuo Takayama, once again going to his opponent’s city of Tokyo and winning by a wide UD. His third defense was against Danny Valdez whom he already had fought and he knocked him out in 1 round, 8 April ‘61. He then once again went to Japan to rematch Kazuo Takayama, on 13 November that year, and again won by a clear UD. His fifth and last successful defense was fought in Helsinki, 17 August ‘62, where he took on one of their best boxers ever, Olli Maki and impressively stopped him by TKO2 after scoring three knockdowns. 
 

After a couple of more non-title fights, he made his sixth defense against the newcomer from Cuba, Ultiminio “Sugar” Ramos. The date was 21 March ‘63 and scene Dodger Stadium in LA. The fight was at first even and they traded evenly, but after maybe eight rounds, the 21-yearold Ramos started to take over and batter the champion. In round 10, he sent him down with a left-right and Moore’s head hit the bottom rope as he fell. He got up and finished the round, but then didn’t feel able to continue and the fight was stopped. He appeared ok and even gave an interview in his dressing room, saying he wanted to fight Ramos again. Only about fifteen minutes later, he started complaining of a headache and fell unconscious. He died two days later, aged 29. It was later determined the cause of his death was the blow his brain stem received from the bottom rope.
 

His record stands at 59 wins with 30 ko’s, 7 losses and 1 draw. He was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1986 and International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021. A later WBA light middleweight champion was named after him, born only 3 months after Davey became a champion. Knowing how many fights in between his championship fights, that may have also contributed to his death-overactivity. Whatever the truth, his is one of the most remembered and talked, as well sung, about deaths in boxing. Phil Ochs also wrote a song about him which placed the guilt on his management and the boxing “money men” as well as fans. It was indeed not the best decision of his manager Willie Ketchum to let him fight so much after becoming a champion and having two grueling fights back to back against Bassey. Sadly, he was just one in a long line of victims of greed that still prevails in the boxing world.

 

[Ledhed1]

I tend to think it was the blunt trauma of Moore's fall vs Ramos that caused his death; not the cumulative damage that may have occurred over the prior years. We see many fighters these days hit the back of their head on the canvas when knocked down. That impact is more dangerous than the punch itself. It's what caused Patrick Day's death.

Stealth boxing fan that Dylan. He also wrote Hurricane about Ruben Carter. He was probably also hip to the exploitation of racial minorities by managers and promoters. Nice shout out, Boz. 👍

[WelshDevilRob]

Great post. Davey is someone that I know little about, his career ending as I was getting into boxing.

[BoztheMadman]

On 11/27/2024 at 11:24 AM, WelshDevilRob said:

Great post. Davey is someone that I know little about, his career ending as I was getting into boxing.

Thanks Rob, glad to give you more info. 👍🏻