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New Featherweight Champion Despairs Over Davey Moore’s Condition

Mar. 22, 1963 - “What can you do about destiny?” Sugar Ramos (pictured last night), who was unable to sleep until 6 a.m. this morning, asked the question as he tried to make sense out of what happened last night. He became the world’s featherweight boxing champion by knocking out Davey Moore, who is now in a coma fighting for his life. “Fighters go in the ring to win,” the Cuban fighter said slowly in Spanish, his only language. “But we’re all comrades — we’re not out to hurt each other. Maybe people who don’t know boxing don’t understand this.” Another new champion, Luis Rodriguez, who had won the welterweight title from Emile Griffith the same evening, had his own view of the Ramos-Moore fight. “If you ask me, the fight should have been stopped in the eighth,” Rodriguez said. “Moore’s legs — they were buckling every time Ramos was hitting him, and Moore almost went out of the ring once. But what would have happened if the fight had been stopped? Would the public like it? They’re very demanding, you know. It is always they who are the boss. I think it should have been stopped in the eighth. But does the public think this?”

© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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