‘Hurry Up’ Moore says Howard must wait

Fresh off his third round stoppage of Edison Morillo, Leon ‘Hurry Up’ Moore is adamant that he is not afraid of Vincent ‘The Kid’ Howard.

“It would be an honour for me; I have wanted this fight for a long time now. We are both friends and boxers but this is a business and I will fight him any time once my manager allows,” Moore told Stabroek Sport Saturday night after his opponent on the night, Morillo, had quit in the third round.

Howard, who was in attendance, called on Moore to persuade his manager to let him fight and the two playfully squared off for the cameras. But a fight between Howard and Moore might have to wait despite the intention of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) to get the two in the same ring in less than a month.

The board has a contract waiting to be signed and Secretary of the Board Trevor Arno said Moore had given a verbal commitment earlier but now seemed to be backing out of the arrangement.

Moore explained that his manager Samuel Layne of Barbados, has set out a road map to a World Title crack and the fight against Howard doesn’t figure into that. “I have a fight next month in Barbados and then again on December 2 for the World Boxing Association Intercon-tinental title. After that Layne says he will try to line up a title fight for me,” Moore told Stabroek Sport. Moore says he had thrown out the idea of fighting Howard several times to Layne and while Layne initially agreed, he later recanted and point out that it was not in the fighter’s best interest. The GBBC is keen to have the two headline a card in a few weeks time in a match up that has been called for years now by local fight fans. Stabroek Sport has also learnt that another local promoter is to sign Moore once his contract with Layne is up at the end of this year. Interest has also been shown in having Moore tackle Steve Molitor, the International Boxing Federa-tion super bantamweight champion sometime next year. Meanwhile, despite the signals from the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis camp that a fight with United States-based Raul Frank is being set for December 26, local promoter Carwyn Holland is calling on the GBBC to force Lewis to make a defence of his national welterweight title which he won from Denny Dalton. Holland, who manages the newly crowned local star “Pretty Boy” Lennox Allen wants his fighter to get a shot at Lewis and has been drumming up support for such a clash. Lewis had told Stabroek Sport earlier this month that he had ‘bigger fish to fry’ but would look at fighting Allen further down the road. Lewis has been inactive since the Dalton fight despite the Peter Abdool-led Board’s stated policy of not allowing national title holders protracted layoffs.

Lewis’s promoter Odinga Lumumba told Stabroek Sport yesterday that the fight was almost set with just the boxer’s arrival in the country and the signing of the contract pending. “This should be a good fight on Boxing Day, a ten round encounter as the public has been calling for this for some time now,” Lumumba said.