hammering shut one of Moore's eyes and stopping him in eight brutal rounds at Madison Square Garden. The beating was so one-sided that Moore's mother and girlfriend were both said to have fainted at ringside. Many knowledgeable observers believed that referee Ernesto Magana should have stopped the fight far earlier. This was proven to be correct by the fact that Moore was never the same fighter after this contest. In 1992, Colombo crime family Caporegime Michael Franzese testified that Moore was handled by himself and other Colombo mobsters, and that although they knew that Moore was in poor physical condition, they decided to proceed with the fight due to the profitability of betting on Duran. Franzese believed that bribery may have taken place for Moore to pass the physical examination. Moore won his next two fights, the second in Monte Carlo over Wilfred Benítez but then he was disqualified in the ninth round against Louis Acaries in Paris. In 1985, he won one more fight and was in line to challenge Carlos Santos for the IBF World Junior Middleweight title. That fight did not materialize, but eventually he did get to challenge for the IBF title against Buster Drayton in August 1986. Moore lost by TKO in the tenth round and only fought 5 more times, winning 3 and losing 2. Professional boxing record Death Moore was killed at his home in Holmdel, New Jersey one morning in early June 1988 when his four-wheel drive vehicle began to roll down the driveway. Caught off guard, he attempted to stop it but was dragged under and pinned there. Paramedics arrived to find him lifeless, the official cause of death being blunt traumatic asphyxia. He left behind his wife and two children. See also List of world light-middleweight boxing champions Davey Moore (boxer, born 1933), a champion boxer who also died prematurely Anton Yelchin, an American actor who died in a similar manner to the subject of this article References External links 1959 births 1988 deaths American male boxers Boxers from New York City Sportspeople from the Bronx African-American boxers Accidental deaths in New Jersey Light-middleweight boxers World light-middleweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions