"Every person who used to watch me fight comes up to me and says `We miss them days, wow they were brilliant days, your fights were unbelievable'"
With the auditorium lights dimmed, and the spotlights fixed upon the ring in the centre, the musical mix of Dirty Old Town and Hanky Park's tribute song Crazy Guy ringing in peoples' ears, the two boxers face off before the first bell...
Salford's Jamie Moore, teak tough with features that could have been chiselled from the Salford cobbles and a stare so intense, cold and chilling his opponents - all thirty seven of them - know that tonight is going to be the most difficult one of their careers. They may win, but they will have to leave a part of themselves behind in the ring to do so...
Jamie Moore's all action style was a crowd pleaser. His bravery, come-forward approach and willingness to leave everything in the ring is the reason that he became the first British Champion born in Salford for over a hundred years...the first to win the coveted Lonsdale belt outright. But do not be fooled into thinking Jamie was some kind of unrefined slugger. He attacked with the same precision a surgeon uses with a scalpel. Inside the ring your worst nightmare, outside it a family man with a warm personality.
The ring has not seem him compete since his retirement in 2010. Although, at 31, still near his prime, his decade long career contained many gruelling fights and his come-forward style meant that, with a young family it was time to quit and explore other avenues.
"I'm glad that I can walk away and I will be healthy for the rest of my life, I didn't want to put that at risk especially for my kids" he explains "I live for my kids, my kids are my life. I wouldn't want to put my life or health in jeopardy for that reason."
We're chatting at Jamie's gym, just off the East Lancs Road in Astley, which he started to pass his knowledge onto other professionals, as well as being a personal trainer. He also created a promotional company, designs boxing equipment and has dabbled in acting with the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders on his résumé.
Of his post-boxing career he is probably most well known for punditry as a member of Sky Sports boxing coverage, bringing some typical Salford attributes and frankness, honesty and passion to his work.
At first glance his retirement from the ring suits him well, looking fit and healthy. Jamie is soon sitting down on the side of the ring in between a personal training session with Coronation Street actress Katie McGlynn and Lorna Bancroft, of Heart FM's Breakfast Show, and Little Hulton's Catherine Tyldesley, also starring in Coronation Street.
We're all here as part of the promotion of his autobiography, Moorsey: The Fighter's Fighter, which is published on July 1st. It is perhaps no surprise with such a full and varied life, that when approached by respected boxing writer Paul Zanon, Jamie decided to put his life down to paper.
Jamie says it was something that he wanted to do, so his children, who were too young to see him fight, could one day read about what their dad had done... "I'm well happy to be honest" he explains "I never realised how much of a story it was until I started it from the beginning and read through it myself. I sat back and said 'Wow!'...in 37 years I've done and achieved the stuff that I was reading about; it was like I was reading about somebody else and it made me proud."
Pride was a word that Jamie put into the fight fans and people of Salford, when he became our first British boxing champion in over 100 years after going into the lion's den and defeating unbeaten and highly touted Liverpudlian Michael Jones. On the night he also captured the Commonwealth crown and later in his career held the Irish and European crowns.
Just over eighteen months after winning the British title Jamie was robbed of it when, in a rematch with Michael Jones, referee Dave Parris disqualified him for hitting his foe a millisecond after the call of break, as Jones fell to floor and `was unable to continue'.
The decision was at the time scandalous, being one of the worst seen in a British ring and to make matters worse Jamie had to endure his rival celebrating as if he had won the fight on his own merit. However, justice and revenge was sweet with a final fight in the trilogy going the way of Moore who stopped his bloody and battered foe in the 6th round, with Jamie having to show the heart and courage which endeared him to his fans by twice getting up off the canvas to win.
We look up to fighters because they do something that most people cannot do, which is to conquer the fear of pain and defeat and push yourself further than you thought possible. To conquer the pain in the ring Jamie says you need a mental toughness to push the body through it and, most importantly, to understand that it isn't going to last much longer than the moment you're actually in.
Jamie's mental toughness was epitomised in the fight that defined his career on 29th September 2006 when he beat Mathew Macklin, the number one challenger to his British title. What transpired over ten rounds was the one of the best boxing matches in the sport's history, with neither man giving any quarter and both having periods of dominance. In the end Jamie won in the 10th round when he stopped Macklin.
It was a night, he reflects with no understatement, that both he and Macklin could have died, so great the desire to win and give no quarter. Jamie's position within boxing circles was cemented and the war with Macklin resulted in their respect before the fight blooming into a lifetime friendship... "I respected him before and I'm sure he respected me, but the respect we've got for each other afterwards; that has created a lifetime friendship.
"People constantly pull me [to one side] and say `That's the best fight I have ever seen!'" he adds "Wow, for me as a kid getting into boxing, who would ever have imagined I would have been involved in one of the best fights that has happened in boxing? It's just crazy to think."
His friendship with Macklin resulted in him becoming his former foe's trainer, and an unsavoury incident which made national headlines when Jamie was the victim of mistaken identity in an attempted murder whilst in camp in Marbella. Shot twice, with one of the bullets still inside him, two years after the event and although part of his book, for obvious reasons Jamie is reluctant to talk about the incident which could have ended his life.
Jamie boxed in a golden period of Greater Manchester Boxers, started with Salford's Steve Foster, Manchester's Ensley Bingham and Carl Thompson, the latter winning the World Title. This was followed by a newer generation of Manchester's Ricky Hatton, Michael Brodie and Anthony Farnell, with Salford fighters Steve Foster Junior, Lee Meager and Jamie Moore.
Fight fans were spoilt for choice. It is perhaps with this in mind that Jamie says "Every person who used to watch me fight comes up to me and says `We miss them days, wow they were brilliant days, your fights were unbelievable'"
But it was not in his victories that his never-be-defeated style was finally formed, but in his first professional defeat to the wily Scott Dixon... "I wasn't brave enough and I'm the first to admit that; when I look back now I can't believe what happened in the fight. I was inexperienced and tactically I didn't go about it right, but above all, I wasn't brave enough" he reflects "And I learnt the biggest lesson I ever learnt in boxing that night. It took me a good three or four months to look myself in the mirror and say, `You know what, you wasn't brave enough that night'. I promised myself from that point on I would never lose a fight unless I was knocked out cold, and I didn't."
As a proud Salfordian, Jamie made sure that he represented his city of birth, going so far as to seek out ring announcers and make sure they were correct when they stated his origin...
"Everyone tried to build me out of Manchester at first, and I wouldn't have it, I'd say `Listen I'm not from Manchester, I'm from Salford, I'm proud of where I am from and it's a city in its own right'" he explains "It took them a while to get used to announcing Salford, I'm glad they did because I am proud of where I am from and proud of what I have achieved for my city."
It was perhaps to his detriment that he did this, as fighting out of Manchester, with his style, would have brought a larger following, pay-checks and opportunities. His contemporary Rick Hatton being a prime example...Although born in Stockport and living in Hyde, with his love for Manchester City he is linked with Manchester, and was always announced as being from Hyde, Manchester or just Manchester. We all remember those nights in front of huge crowds.
That kind of adulation may not have appealed to Jamie, who seems quite content and when asked for his own eulogy says "No matter how many titles you win in your career or how much money you earn, you can never get that respect off boxing fans if you don't put the effort in and the hard work. I feel that I have a respect off boxing fans that World Champions haven't got and I am proud of that. The main thing is I am respected in my profession I couldn't want any more."
The city of Salford, for all its working class heritage has never really had a thriving professional boxing scene. Jamie only fought in the city once at the now non-existent Willows. With only a few amateur clubs then and now, as a child growing up and without transport Jamie never had the opportunity to box, despite wanting to, before a gym opened up in Little Hulton a couple of miles from his Walkden home.
This is something that he is hoping to rectify, and is working with and pressuring Salford Council to open a boxing gym in Walkden... "I just think with the social problems we've got at the minute boxing would go a massive way into helping or getting kids off the streets teaching them about discipline, respect and fitness" he says "There's not enough boxing gyms around at the minute in my opinion."
With the retirements of Jamie Moore, Lee Meager and Steve Foster Junior, professional boxing in the city has returned to its previous state in the doldrums, hopefully we won't have to wait for so long before our next champion!
No conversation with one of the leading boxing pundits in the country can be entertained without asking about the huge fight on July the 9th between World Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko, and Jamie is willing to offer his opinion.
"I think Fury again" he insists "I just think he got into Klitschko's head last time, I think technically he's good enough. What Tyson Fury does well is he stops you doing the stuff that you are good at and he got off to a tee against Klitschko. Klitschko is coming towards the end and he is not quite as good as he was, he is not quite as sharp off the mark.
"I think two scenarios" he adds "I think it will be the exact replica of the first fight, or if Wladimir Klitschko tries to come and put it on Tyson Fury and knock him out, I think that Fury will get the stoppage. I think Klitschko will make mistakes; he hasn't been an aggressive come-forward fighter all of his career, so for him to do that at the end of his career when it is not a natural thing to do he will make mistakes and Tyson Fury will make him pay. So I think either way Tyson Fury wins."
For a city of its size, Salford is not overly blessed with well known people. Perhaps Jamie Moore, The Fighter's Fighter, a man who epitomises the traditional working class Salford spirit, is a good candidate for being honoured in his own city. It could start with the Walkden gym...
Mooresy - The Fighters' Fighter: My Autobiography
By Jamie Moore with Paul Zanon
published July 1st 2016 £16.99 at all good book stores.
To pre-order the book see here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mooresy-Fighters-Fighter-Autobiography-Jamie/dp/1785311794
Jamie will be signing copies of his book at Waterstones on Deansgate in Manchester 12noon 9th July
For the full audio interview with Jamie Moore see the Salford Star YouTube channel – click here
Words, YouTube video and photos by Gareth Lyons
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