By Manuel Perez: Previously undefeated light middleweight prospect James Moore (15-1, 10 KOs) was shockingly upset by little known Gabriel Rosado (10-2, 6 KOs) by an 8-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. After losing the first three rounds and appearing on his way to losing the fight, Rosado stunned Moore with a right hand at the end of the 4th round. In the 5th round, Moore walked into a big right hand from Rosado was sent to the canvas. For the next three rounds, Rosado pretty much controlled action with his right hand, although it was close due to Moore – the much better skilled fighter – pressing the action most of the time. The final judges’ scores were 77-74, 78-73 and 76-74.
Going into the bout, Moore, 30, a former 2001 amateur World Champion for Ireland and a veteran of over 314 amateur fights, was thought to walk right though the 22 year-old Rosado, who had a decent right hand but little else in the way of boxing skills or ability.
Moore, however, after a good start in rounds one through three, looked exhausted by the 4th round, much older looking than his age (30 years-old) would indicate. Seeing that Moore was beginning to fade, Rosado suddenly got bold in the 4th round, opening up with a substantial number of hard right hands in the round. At the end, Rosado finally connected with a big right hand that staggered Moore at the end of the round. It was made easier for Rosado because Moore was for the most part predictable, in that he would always come straight forward in a line and was easy to time.
In rounds one through three, Rosado had fought mostly timid, moving constantly on the outside and trying to stay away from the heavy pressure from Moore. During these rounds, Moore looked every bit as his former amateur credentials indicated. However, like a lot of amateur fighters with long careers, Moore faded after the 3rd round, looking completely gassed out. In his case, he didn’t appear to have the ability to catch a second wind, and stayed somewhat tired-looking for the remainder of the fight. This enabled Rosado, who as I said previously, is basically an unskilled fighter with only one weapon – a right hand and nothing else – to take over the fight. After knocking Moore down in the 5th round, you’d have expected for Rosado to come out and press the action in the 6th.
Instead, Rosado looked as timid as he did in the earlier rounds, fighting on the outside, moving constantly and looking more like a poor fighter than the one that had knocked Moore down in the 5th. This enabled Moore to easily win the 6th and 7th rounds, using his heavy pressure and hard hooks to the body and head to win the round. Rosado fought foolishly in both rounds, moving far too much and not letting his hands go. It seemed obvious to me that if Rosado had just made a big effort and gone after Moore like he had in the 4th and 5th rounds, he could have likely stopped him in either of the rounds.
As it was, Rosado gave them away for no reason. In the 8th round, Rosado came back strong and nailed Moore with some excellent right hands and won the round in an impressive fashion. Although Rosado won the fight, I had the fight scored a lot closer and felt that the Moore had narrowly won the bout due to Rosado giving away rounds one, two, three, six and seven. This is a good wake-up call for Moore, who either needs to work on his lack of conditioning and poor defense or else consider another profession. At 30, he doesn’t have a lot of time to make a move and he looks like an old 30 time. It’s a particularly bad sign when a fighter like Moore loses to a low quality fighter like Rosado, who is a C-level fighter at best.