Getting Licked by Archie Moore.

Came across George Plimpton's account of the time he tried his luck with Archie Moore.As somebody who loved the sport and wanted to find out what it felt like being punched in the face, he wrote Archie Moore,the reigning light heavyweight champion, a letter..
"Quite unlike the withdrawn Patterson, Moore was a flamboyant and gregarious champion;he was certainly a distinguished figure in his profession,being a sly craftsman who had knocked out more people than anyone else in ring history.
I had seen him fight Rocky Marciano in the Polo Grounds- Moore suckered the champion into the wrong moves,but he didn't have the power to capitalise on them.By the eighth round,he was in terrible trouble.The reports were that the ring physician came and looked at him in his corner and found him battered ,one eye nearly closed ;he leaned forward to examine him,and Moore whispered,"Don't stop it ,ref;let me try once more with a Desperado",and the doctor let him.

Moore read my letter and told me (I had said that it would be in the cause of literature)that he would be delighted to participate."

Plimpton researched "The Art and Practise of English Boxing", which advised;
"One of the chief studies of a pugilist of character is to know where he can most successfully plant his blows.The parts of the body in which a blow is struck with the greatest probablity of terminating the battle,are on the eyes,between the eyebrows,on the bridge of the nose,or the temporal artery,beneath the left ear,under the short ribs,and in the pit of the stomach...a blow under the left earforces back the blood which proceeds from the head to the heart(I shifted uneasily in my chair)..so that the vessels and sinews of the brain are overcharged,particularly the smaller ones,which being of too delicate a texture to resist so great a change of blood,burst...and an effusion of blood succeeding from the apertures of the head complete his business......"
Plimpton was a bantamweight.And a journalist friend of his,Peter Maas, had dined with Moore, and lied through his teeth that George was a pretty decent fighter, who intended to suddenly embarrass him.
"He's a gawky guy, but don't let that fool you,Arch.He's got a left jab that sticks,he's fast,and he's got a pole-ax left hook that he can really throw.And the big thing about him is that he's ambitious,he wants to be the light-heavyweight champion of the world.And confident .He doesn't see why he should work his way up through the preliminaries in the tank towns;he reckons he's ready NOW."
Moore finally had a comment to offer. "If that guy lays a hand on me ,I'm going to coldclock him". Peter Maas couldn't get Archie to believe it was merely a joke.
"My trainer,George Brown, taught me to run.He told me that Willie Pep once caught Jake LaMota spiking his premidmorning run orange juice with a jigger of brandy."Hey Willie", he explained, "I don't run good, but I'm the happiest guy in the world". I enjoyed my running, but Brown made a face and said that I was not attending to business.Always I had to remember why I was there-and that I should work up a controlled rageagainst Archie Moore,seeing him in my mind's eye, shadowboxing as if his presence were just beyond reach,and to hell with everything else.He told me that when Gene Tunney was training for Dempsey, he would be playing golf, but still shuffling and feinting,and his caddy ,hurrying after him, could hear him muttering between his teeth, "Dempsey...Dempsey..Dempsey."


The fight,or exhibition,or what people later called "that time you tried to..." took place in Stillman's Gym,which was a famous and rickety boxing club on Eighth Avenue.One heard the sound before one's ears acclimatized;the "slapslap" of the ropes being skipped,the thud of leather into the big heavy bags that squeaked from their chains as they swung,the rattle of the speed bags,muffled sounds of gym shoes on the canvas of the rings,the snuffle of the sound of the boxers breathing through their noses,and every three minutes, the sharp clang of the ring bell.When Gene Tunney trained at Stillman's,he wanted to open the windows,which were so caked that it was hard to pick out where they were in the wall. "Let's clear this place with some fresh air",he had said, and everyone looked at him, astonished.Johnny Dundee, the featherweight champion at the time,made an oft-quoted remark:
"fresh air?Why, that stuff is likely to kill us!"
Plimpton began to get very afraid as to what may happen to him in the ring with Moore.He suffered from an involuntary medical condition which meant that when cuffed about,he wept.He was reminded of the words of Charley Goldman, Rocky Marciano's famous gnomelike trainer,who said of fighters that were built along his lines."You know them fighters with long necks and them long pointy chins.They cost you more for smellin' salts than they do for food."
His trainer,George Brown advised, "If you have to go to Stillman's ,go and work on the light bag,the heavy bag, but don't let yourself be pushed into the ring if anyone else is fooling around in there.Don't forget, in the ring, friendship ceases."
Perhaps foolishly, he went ahead with the bout. Archie Moore turned up, and wished him luck in the changing room,"Just do your best."
Plimpton said,
"As I climbed into the ring he had his back to me,leaning over the ropes and shouting at someone in the crowd.The referee provided instructions and waved us together.He began shuffling towards me.I had read somewhere that if you had to be knocked out by someone, it would best to be by Archie Moore.His face was peaceful ,comforting.But not when he approached me,briskly, and as I poked at him tentatively, his left reached out and thumped me ,alarmingly.As he moved he made a humming sound in his throat,except that it would cease abruptly and BANG, I would be caught on the side of my head.
Halfway through the round, Moore slipped,almost to one knee-not because of anything I had done,but his footing had betrayed him somehow.Laughter rose out of the seats,and in retribution he jabbed and followed up with a long hook that reached my nose and collapsed it slightly.We went into a clinch ; I was surprised when I was pushed away away and saw blood on his shirt.THe flow of my tears was surely disarming. He whispered in my ear, "Hey, breathe ,man, breathe."
For the next two rounds he let up ,assured of the quality of his opposition.He let me whale away at him from time to time, and then would pull me into a clinch and whack at me with great harmless popping shots to the back of my shoulder baldes, which sounded to me like the crack of artillery..It was over after three rounds.

"Occasionally,during the bout, I was aware of the faces hanging above the seats like rows of balloons,as if they were waiting for a joke to be told which was going to be pretty good...they looked slightly inhuman.
After the fight ,the character of the crowd began to change.The word had gone around the arena that Archie Moore was up in Stillman's, and the fight bars down the avenue had emptied."It's over?What the hell was
Arch doing in Stillman's?" "I dunno," one of the others pushin up the stairs had said,"I hear he kilt some guy". "

Now, that's bravery! For me, the passage reminds me how easy it is for us armchair critics,and just how dangerous it is to actually step in there.He is prominent in the "When we were kings" feature (waffling on about the succubus, or the witches curse;)along with Mailer, who also boxed a fair few times himself.Great writers to go with the great fighters.

Great read, thanks for posting. Archie always came across as a ruthlessly determined character in the ring, but an approachable guy out of the ring.

I once read a story about him in a fight with a younger boxer. He kept giving the young guy tips up close, and they were working well for him. Late in the fight Archie says "Now lower your left." The young guy did, and The Old Mongoose put him down for the count!

I read that Moore chewed steak but didn't swallow (kinda like an ex of mine without the chewing).

What a superb article, andy.

Thanks very much for sharing.

I concur, smashing article Andy. Archie Moore, one of the most respected figures in Boxing. Even when having his career ended by Clay, he was the model of dignity and refinement.

cheers.I have added a few paragraphs to this article today!

andygf wrote:
Now, that's bravery! For me, the passage reminds me how easy it is for us armchair critics,and just how dangerous it is to actually step in there.He is prominent in the "When we were kings" feature (waffling on about the succubus, or the witches curse;)along with Mailer, who also boxed a fair few times himself.Great writers to go with the great fighters.

~ Why sir, bravery for a civilian to step in against the nicest gentleman in the history of boxing?

Moreover, Mailer is to in ring fisticuffs what Mr. Moneybags is to Shakespheare. Hot air is their forte.

There are few up there with Mr. Archie when it comes to both telling and being the source of a King's ransom worth of stories, but I like this one which is paraphrased:

A touted heavyweight prospect was looking to make a name for himself by beating the ol' Mongoose who was getting up there in gray hairs. Leveraging his height and considerable size advantage, he started strong and noticed Arch started backing off, saying stuff like, "Wow, that jab hurts," or " Man, you got some footwork,."

So this kept up for a few rounds and the guy noticed Arch had started giving him pointers like "Straigten out your right hand," and "feint your jab before the right."

So then he says, "Dip your left shoulder before your left hook for leverage," the guy obliged and "BOOM" fight was over courtesy of Arch's favorite punch, the straight right.

Mr. Plimpton was the source of a host of Walter Mitty articles about pro sports and quite popular in his day, so regards for that.

Have certain misgivings against Mailer,but "The Fight" is mostly pretty concise.
But are you suggesting that Mr.Plimpton exaggerated his bout with Mr.Moore?
Your anecdote is splendidly told, Professor, and compared to the other version of it above,your embellishments are not bad either!

the source of this article is called "shadow box" by George Plimpton.

Great article, andy. Nothing to add from me, apart from a five star rating (if they existed on this site, I mean).