– Pastrana confirmed to fight Moore
Co-promoter for the September 26 world title boxing card, Carwyn Holland yesterday confirmed that Colombian Mauricio Pastrana has settled on fighting Guyanese Leon ‘Hurry-Up’ Moore for the vacant North American Boxing Association (NABA) Bantamweight title at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
It was reported last week that Pastrana who is also a former IBF, WBO & IBA World Champion had declined to fight Moore because he had received a bigger offer elsewhere.
The promoters for the card dubbed ‘Caribbean Furry’, had then named another Colombian, Reynaldo Lopez, as his replacement.
“Pastrana got an offer to fight for over 20 something thousand US after we had given him our offer and he had our contract in hand and Pastrana in fighting for us is going to be for far less money, because in Guyana we can’t afford to pay a boxer four, five million dollars just to come here and fight, so he took the offer for fighting for the bigger money than what we were going to give him,” Holland said.
But things took a turn after Moore through Stabroek Sport made it clear that it didn’t matter which Colombian they brought to fight him, since all he knows is that he would exact revenge for his controversial loss in 2006 to Irene Pacheco for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Inter-Continental title.
“Pastrana said that after he heard that Leon Moore was saying that he [Pastrana] is afraid of him and so on, he decided that he is going to come and put an end to Leon Moore for all Colombians, so he’s going to take the fight, and when he is finished with this fight, he is going to move on because he says he can get back into the WBC ratings if he wins all these belts,” Holland explained.
He said further, “He also said that he was already there, he knows what it is to fight for those big titles and Leon Moore has never been there and . . . Leon Moore is relatively new, so he’s saying that he stands a good chance of knocking out Leon Moore.”
Pastrana has a ring record of 48 fights, with 35 wins, 11 losses and two draws while Moore, who is the Caribbean’s highest ranked fighter after being placed at number seven in the world by the World Boxing Council (WBC), fought 26 times with 24 wins, 22 of which came by way of knockouts along with two losses.
The fighter told Stabroek Sport yesterday that the confusion would not hamper his preparation since his goal is to win as it would give him a clear shot at the World Title.
“Leon Moore is a kind of fighter that adjusts himself in the ring, out the ring, so like I’m saying bring Pastrana, Lopez, it doesn’t matter once I’m in the ring, I would do my work, do my adjustment and I promise I would make the fight very easy to win that belt,” Moore said.
Apart from the NABA title, the Guyanese will be hoping to punch his way to the World Boxing Association (WBA) Fedelatin and Caribbean Bantamweight titles while placing his WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) on the line.
The six-fight card will be headlined by a clash between Shondel ‘Mystery Lady’ Alfred and Corrine ‘Sexy Panther’ De Groot for the vacant Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) bantamweight title.
