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Aggressive Moore does enough to defeat De Los Santos

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Coming off a loss to NABF titlist Yuri Foreman last December, Moore was eager to avoid another defeat and it showed in his aggressive mode from the first bell.
The Arklow junior middleweight, working behind a long jab and lead rights, went at De Los Santos for the first four rounds, and then slowed down in the last two stanzas. He won by scores of 59-55 on one card and 58-56 on the other two, whilst upping his record to 17-2 [10 KOs].
De Los Santos, a Dominican fighting out of Puerto Rico, fell to 4-4-3 [2 KOs]. There were no knockdowns.
“It was alright,” Moore, who’s 31, later said. “I knew I won the first four rounds. There’s still room for improvement. I was a little tight.”
Predictably, De Los Santos begged to differ. “It was not a good decision,” he said through an interpreter. “I thought I won the fight.”
Still, the 32 year-old conceded that Moore fought a good fight.
Indeed, seldom has Moore been so aggressive and light on his feet as he was on his third return to the popular German eatery.
Although he took a lot of jabs and sneaky rights early on, De Los Santos was no chump. He took his licks and kept on ticking.
The action was fast paced and in Moore’s favor as he outpunched and outworked De Los Santos.
The fourth round ended with 5-foot-11 inch Moore tattooing the squat Dominican with several punches after some infighting.
Then the pendulum change.
Admittedly ring rusty after the longest layoff of his pro career, Moore hit the snooze button in the fifth and De Los Santos capitalized on it. He found a home for his right, landing two clean shots and one time and putting the fatigued Irishman on the retreat.
Moore admitted that he was stunned at one point.
“I waited all fight for his overhand right and he didn’t [throw] it until the fifth,” he said.
At any rate, Moore took the bona fide middleweight’s best shots but was outworked in the fifth round.
He came back a bit in the sixth and final stanza but at the point De Los Santos needed a knock out to salvage the fight.
Moore’s dad, Jim, a youth coach with the Irish Amateur Boxing Association who flew in from a junior tournament in Azerbaijan, said his son was trying too hard to knockout De Los Santos.
“He was trying too hard to knockout the man out. He boxed better at a distance. The jab worked very well, that’s what won the fight.”
Trainer Lennox Blackmoore was impressed by Moore’s hunger and desire even while critiquing his game on the night.
“He needed to use the left hook to the body. I was telling him to stay back and use the jab. He needed to box more, but it’s a good comeback,” said Blackmoore.

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