Moore Beats Candelo At The Garden

Unbeaten junior middleweight James Moore, a native of County Wicklow, who fights out of Queens, took a big step forward by winning a hard fought unanimous decision over veteran J.C. Candelo of Colombia at Madison Square Garden's WaMu Theater.

The two-way action by both fighters brought the pro-Moore crowd to its feet on many occasions. Moore, now 15-0 (10 KOS), was hurt by a right uppercut in the third round. Both fighters landed thunderous punches during many spirited exchanges and received a standing ovation at the end.

Candelo saw his record dip to 27-10-4 (18 KOS) when the scores of 97-92, 97-93 and 95-94 were announced.

"He's a crafty veteran who exploited my mistakes," said Moore. "This was the kind of challenge I needed to get to the next level. I'm only going to get better by fighting veterans like this. I don't want easy fights because this is not an easy business." Candelo, who initially took the microphone and yelled, "You judges bleeping suck," later called Moore a "gentleman who doesn't talk bleep" and said, "I got respect for him. This was his first step-up fight. He fought for his crowd and did what he was supposed to do."

In the action-packed co-feature, junior middleweight Pawel "Raging Bull" Wolak, a native of Poland who fights out of New Jersey, stopped Dupre "Total Package" Strickland of Shreveport, Louisiana, at 3:06 of the second round. A vicious combo by Wolak, now 20-0 (14 KOS), knocked Strickland down for the count. The loser, who had gone the 10 round distance with John Duddy, saw his record dip to 18-3-1 (7 KOS).

In other bouts, lightweight Oisin Fagan, 21-5 (16 KOS), Oklahoma City via Dublin, stopped Brian Carden, 6-5 (4 KOS) in 2; welterweight Martin Wright, 5-0-1 (2 KOS), Brooklyn, won a 4 round decision over Juan Carlos Sanchez, 3-3-1 (1 KO), Bronx; middleweight Simon O'Donnell, 5-1 (3 KOS), Philadelphia via County Galway, Ireland, TKO 2 Chris Overbey, 8-9 (2 KOS), Sidney, Ohio; featherweight Jules Blackwell, 7-0-1 (2 KOS), Philadelphia, battled to a draw with Jae-Sung Lee, 8-1-1 (5 KOS), Korea; junior middleweight Oliva Fonseca, 2-1-2 (1 KO), Philadelphia, won a 4 round decision over Cristy Nickel, 7-6 (4 KOS), New York; lightweight Jose Espinel, 4-3-1 (1 KO), Brooklyn, TKO 1 over Joe Rosa, 1-3-1 (0 KOS), Bronx; bantamweight Khabir Suleymanov, 3-0 (1 KO), Brooklyn via Ukraine, W 4 Robert Phillips, 0-1; junior middleweight Luis Ruiz, 3-0 (1 KO) TKO Terrell Boggs, 0-2, Philadelphia.