[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/16/67 Monday
Manchester, England
Vic Moore – HW (7-2-0) vs. Lloyd Walford – HW (10-11-1)

Vic Moore - UK Rating 1
Heavyweight 1965-68
9 wins / 9 losses / 1 draw / 5 KO

Hometown/Birthplace: Hammersmith, UK

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

After a first fight TKO loss to somebody named Derek Groombridge in November 1965, Moore fought in something called the Novice Heavyweight Competition in London in early 1966. He won 3 fights advancing through the Semi-Final rounds. He fought 5 more times, winning 4 in 1966 leading up to his fight in Jan. 1967 with Lloyd Walford. None of those previous opponents amounted to much. Moore's one loss after teh Groombridge fight was to a Ron Gray(20-20-2,10). One of his wins was against a Jim McIivaney who posted a decent 13-12-3,8 career mark. He lost an 8 round decision to Walford in that Jan. 1967 fight and that was the start of a 2-7-1 slide over the last half of his career. He managed wins over George Dulaire and Dennis Avoth while loosing fights to Dulaire, Des Cox, Rudolph Vaughan(12-12-0,10), Roger Tighe, Joe Bugner and lastly to a Terry Daly(16-3-0,13).

Lloyd Walford - UK Rating 1
Heavyweight 1964-76
25 wins / 37 losses / 3 draws / 7 KO

Hometown: Chesterfield, England
Birthplace: Jamaica

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

A busy journeyman heavyweight in England for a good number of years from the mid 60's to mid 70's. Lack of knockout punching abilitiy probably kept him from climbing very high in the ranks. He did though fight a few recognizable names of the time.Early in his career he lost a couple fights to CArl Gizzi who was just getting his career going. He lost also to Billy Gray and defeated Gerry Hassett in the first year of his professional career. He defeated Obe Hepburn, beat Jack London Jr. twice, lost to Eddie Avoth, beat Stan Cullis and vic Moore and drew with Roger Tighe in 1967. Later in his career, Walford managed a win over Tighe. Early in 1968 he lost 8 round decisions to Carl Gizzi and then Jurgen Blin. Later in 1968 he fought and lost two straight 8 round decisions to Bunny Johnson. In 1969 he lost fights to Dickie Owens, beat John (Young) McCormack, lost to Derek Richards, Richard Dunn, Rudi Lubbers, Christian Poncelet twice, David Conteh, Billy Aird and John Luis Gardner. On November 21st, 1972 he defeated Geoff Shaw in a 10 round decision for the vacant British (Central Area) Light Heavyweight Title, this only a month after he'd defeated Roger Tighe in an 8 round fight and then had announced his retirement.

The Fight....
Moore’s sporting the better looking record, but Walford up to now has faced overall better competition. Moore’s biggest fight up to now was an 8 round decision loss to Ron Gray who would accumulate a 20-20-2,10KO career record. Vic’s coming into this fight with 2 wins in November and December of the previous year. Walford, in really the early part of a fairly long career in England has faced some decent heavyweights of the UK boxing scene. He’s coming off a tough loss back in mid November when he was stopped in the 4th round by Jim McIlvaney, 10-3-1 at the time. Both of these guys can be dropped in a fight. Moore with a harder looking punch, might show an advantage in this fight one would think. In the fight in 1967, it turned out to be a split decision affair with Walford taking the 8 round decision.
Our replay here through the first 5 rounds looked like it might turn out to be a mirror image quite possibly one way or the other. It was a very close fight through 5. Moore came out strong in the first round winning on all three judges cards 10-9. Aft that though it was back and forth with Walford getting just enough of the next 4 rounds such that at the end of the 5th we had pretty much a dead even fight. The cards showed it 48-47 Moore, 48-48 even, 47-48 Walford. Couldn’t get it much closer then that! Then came the 6th and lightening strikes! Moore rushed out his corner and quickly slid toward a neutral corner with Walford just missing with a punch. Then all of sudden, Moore lands a punch like a lightening bolt strikes Walford, sending Lloyd onto his back!! He can’t beat the count as Walford is counted out at the 0:36 time in the 6th round. KO victory for Vic Moore!! Wow what a sudden finish to such a close fight?!