Moore grits out British title win by Terry Dooley Oct 27th 2007

Jamie Moore had to dig deep to defeat game Andrew Facey in Wigan last night. If this is to be Moore's final British title defence – he now hopes to secure a European title fight – Jamie made sure that he gave the British fans more memories to remember his reign by. Facey played his part in a hard-fought, if messy, fight before succumbing to the pressure of Moore in the eleventh round. With Moore's southpaw aggression and Facey's gangly reach the fight reminded this writer of the Marvin Hagler-Fully Obel bouts. Hagler defeated Obel in fight I by tucking up, getting close, then working on the inside; in fight II the Marvellous one (and he was) bobbed at range before dipping down and torpedoing Fully with his telescopic southpaw shots. Moore, in having to take a few lumps whilst cutting Facey down on the inside, opted to follow a similar pattern to the first Hagler-Obel fight, perhaps due to, despite his pre-fight protestations, feeling a little flat for this fight. Moore, now 28-3 (19), lost his way in the middle rounds, no surprise given his six-months absence from the ring, before gritting his teeth to fell Facey once in round nine and twice in round eleven to force the intervention of referee Howard Foster at 2:14 of the round. Facey, who now falls to 19-5-1 (3), had performed well only to be put down in the pivotal nine round, both men were caught clean in this session, and, despite a brave effort in the rest of the ninth and the tenth round, Facey saw the fight run away from him irrevocably. Moore, 10st 13lb 8oz, came out jabbing to the body and the head of Facey. Moore also dropped a straight left hand to the stomach, which, in turn, enabled him to land a right hook to the ribs. Facey, 10st 13 ½lb 4oz, would sometimes work behind his jab before letting Moore move in close so he could time Jamie with short right hands but this ploy did not work in the first. In the second round Moore again looked focussed. He was foot feinting his way in and it looked like he may replicate the decent form of the first round. However Facey, in leaning back from the shots of Moore, gave himself a little bit of space to drop short right hands over and under the guard of Moore. Moore's shots looked to lack a little steam in the third; Facey was also spinning Jamie then landing his own right hand. Facey now had worked himself some space and was popping out a range-finding jab or two early in round four. Facey would touch Jamie up at range then, as Moore tried to come in behind a few shots, Andrew would lean back from Moore's swings and pop Moore with solid right hands. Moore tried to take the initiative in round five, he landed a left hook to the body on the inside, but it was Facey who, again, scored a decisive shot as a left uppercut pinned Moore back on the ropes and allowed Facey to throw a flurry of punches. Moore fought back with a few 1-2's but his success was hindered and he was unable to play his usual aggressive-technique game. Usually, for Moore, the appliance of science results in triumph, however, this time he had to reach deep inside of himself to get the win. Moore composed himself enough to switch to the orthodox stance and landed a left hook to the body of Facey. Clearly, in this fight as in his career, Moore was playing the long game once again. By round six Moore had the red-eyed look he exhibited in the third fight of his trilogy with Michael Jones. However Jamie started to score with renewed vigour in this round. A left hand to the head set-up a right hook to the ribs then, with Facey looking to hold on, Moore landed a left hand inside then pushed Facey back with a straight left hand to the body. Facey's guard dropped and this invited Moore to land a right hand and left hook from the orthodox stance. Another left hook, this time off the ropes, put Facey on his back foot shortly before the end of the round. In round 7 it was clear that Moore was in a loose-loose position. Finish Facey in this round and people would say he had levelled as a fighter. Fail to finish Facey and he would face question marks over his potential. It was not that simple, however, Facey was up for the fight and signalled this anew by wiping blood from around his nose then landing a right hand on Moore. Later in the round Moore dipped his knees then skipped-in with a torpedoing right hand to the head of Facey. It was looking Moore would have to just grit out the win and the eighth round confirmed this as Facey, fresh again, landed a few right hands. In this the eighth it was looking like the fight had been a crazy one for Moore to take, it was a potentially de-motivating banana skin waiting to slip Moore up. Jamie got behind his southpaw jab to open round nine yet it was Facey who was timing Moore with the right hand. A short counter right hand briefly steadied Moore and the Champions reply was to tear right back at Facey with his own right hand. A trio of right hand jabs, the 3rd almost a straight right from the orthodox stance, set-up a left hand, which put Facey over for the first knockdown of the fight. Facey got to his feet and stood his ground for the remainder of the round but his shots were ineffectual cuffs. It had been a pivotal stanza; Moore had sucked it up and was changing the fight with his desire to win. Facey battled back incredibly well in round 10, he got behind his jab from the start and could still counter Moore's 1-2 shots. Throughout the fight I had felt that it was hard for Moore to land 1-2's and even 2-4 shots without getting tagged, Moore tried to do this and, therefore, got tagged more often than usual. Facey would lean back and drop his right hand from the elbow as Moore missed with his shots. I felt that if Moore threw a feint with the 1-2 he could have success without the risk of being countered. This had been the case in the first round, a few times Moore had thrown a straight left to the body before dropping his knees and landing the right hook to the head, or ribs, of Facey. Moore showed a flipped version of this formula in round 10, a right hand to the body, a drop of the shoulder, and, then, a left hook to the head caught Facey flush. Moore came out with still greater zest in the eleventh round. A counter right hook, after a clever feint, from Moore was the beginning of the end. Moore was now stabbing his shots in as Facey faded, he put them together like a RZA beat - the odd stab here, and the odd booming shot there. Facey was soon retreating to the ropes under the pressure of Moore, who could see his man was hurt. A burst of shots, three in total, all missed their target, nevertheless Facey slumped to the canvas and a knockdown was, wrongly in my opinion, called. Facey got to his feet and was soon on the canvas again, this time it was, wrongly, not called a knockdown - Moore hit Facey with a temple shot and Facey paused before hitting the canvas. Once again Facey found himself trapped on the ropes upon rising. A right hook, left hand and a, missed, right swing saw Facey drop to his knees, a spent force at last. Prior to the fight Ricky Hatton had described the fight as one he did not like for Moore and in many ways he was correct. Moore deserved a shot at a European title after his win over Matthew Macklin last September. He was in the form of his life at that point only for his promoter Frank Maloney to not deliver a European title shot or consistently, along with Sky, deliver International bouts of decent quality. Moore needed a Vincent Vuma type fight rather than Facey II. Consequently it left the possibility that we witnessed, last night, a demoralised fighter going into a demoralising retread of a fight. Clearly no one is doing Jamie any favours so he will carry on doing them for himself in the ring in the hope that the penny drops out of it. Jamie's mind had seemed distracted in the early going, as it had been against Michael Jones in their rubbermatch, for Jones it was for family reasons, for Facey, possibly, the fighter felt he has spent too long waiting in line. Facey is the worst foe to face when the mind, however imperceptibly, is looking forward to new title pastures. Despite this smoking bomb of a fight falling into his lap, or maybe because of the danger, Moore made sure that he stayed in European contention over a year after first serving definitive notice of his all-round improvement as a fighter. After the fight Jamie told BBN that he knew the fight was going to be tough, he felt that Facey would have a point to prove and that he would have to dig deep. Jamie was happy to have put the fight behind him and is certain he will produce the fight of his life when he gets a chance at the European title. He said, "We expected it to be that tough. No one else did but we did. I won the first fight by basically putting him down in the second round of the fight. He just lasted seven rounds by surviving. He showed how tough he was and we knew how hard he would be. "I needed a fight. Anyone else would pullout and ditch the title saying, "fuck that I'm not fighting him", but I think it did me the world of good. Facey is negative in a successful way and that will get me ready for the European Champion. "I was tired in the second round but the win is there now and we want to look ahead to the European title."

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