Carl Frampton trainer Jamie Moore close to retirement but now is hungry for success
"I told Nigel Travis, 'If Tommy Coyle retires, I'm done with this training'," said Moore.
The former British and European light-middleweight champion had already grown tired of being the man in the corner and confided in friend and fellow coach Travis he was ready to pack it in.
He had initially become a coach by accident rather than design and the lack of enthusiasm from young prospects that came to his gym on the outskirts of Manchester had left him frustrated.
"Over the last three years I've trained some fighters and I've had to get rid of them, young prospects who should be the most enthusiastic and they are not," said Moore.
"I expect fighters to be as committed as I was, at the very least.
Why should I be dedicated to help them when they are not?" It was only the dedicated Coyle who kept him going, the fighter he took over after the well-respected manager Steve Wood had asked him to train him in 2013.
"I'll never be the same again" Jamie Moore Back then Moore was focused on his TV punditry work rather than coaching.
But this weekend he will be in the corner for one of the big names in the sport as Moore takes charge of former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton for the first time.
Now he has a gym bustling with 10 fighters as he also looks after some of Oliver Harrison's boxers with the Salford-based coach currently recovering from illness.
Suddenly Moore's name is much talked about and all eyes will be on him to see if he can guide Frampton back to the top of the featherweight division.
Handing in his trainer's licence is no longer on the agenda but perhaps why Moore had grown frustrated by boxers with a lack of dedication comes from his own drive to get where he is now.
Just over three years ago, the former fighter was lying in a hospital bed after being shot in Marbella.
It was a case of mistaken identity after Moore had travelled to Spain to train old rival Matthew Macklin, who he faced in an epic battle back in 2006.
But Moore felt he was about to die outside of his rented accommodation as blood poured from the wounds where bullets had pierced through his skin multiple times.
However just two months later, he was back in the gym with Hull fighter Coyle, who would be his only charge for the next three years.
"A couple of months after it happened I was in bed in my living room, as I couldn't around much, and I was getting Tommy to pick me up and take me to the gym," Moore said.
Related videos Violent brawl breaks out during Walsall boxing event Violent brawl breaks out during Walsall boxing event Rio Ferdinand trains in boxing ring with Richie Woodhall Rio Ferdinand takes his first steps into boxing as he trains with former champ Richie Woodhall Peter Schmeichel has a training boxing session Peter Schmeichel has a boxing training session.
"I was still able to get to the gym to oversee the training. It was my way of forgetting about what happened.
"But I'll have a memory of what happened forever because I'll never be the same again." Moore put on a brave face during the recovery but his words now convey the pain he has gone through to get back into the ring and be able to move around on the pads with his fighters.
At one point that looked like an almost impossible task as, for a year after the shooting, there was no recovery in his left leg.
Moore could not move his foot, with his lower leg feeling "like jelly" and a specialist told him he would never be able to run again. "My left leg will never be the same again," he said.
"But I've made it my ambition to try to get it as good as it will work. "The specialists and physios have been brilliant but they never expected to get where it is at.
"I went back to see the surgeon who fixed the nerve a year later and my foot was not moving from the calf down, it was just basically like jelly.
"He said, 'Usually by now there is some reaction to the surgery so I don't anticipate you getting any recovery'. I said, 'I will'.
"I asked him if I would ever run again and he said, 'No'. He said I'd have to wear a foot support forever but I told him that wasn't going to happen either.
"Only about two-and-a-half months later I started to get these little flickers in my muscles he was talking about and from that point on it has gone from strength to strength." That was thanks to the painstaking work by Moore every day to get his leg to recover and expensive physiotherapy sessions with a nerve specialist in Manchester.
But not only did he run again, he ran 13.1 miles in the Great Manchester Run last year for the Niamh's Next Step Charity and even the pain of the bullet still lodged in his hip could not stop him.
He was due to do the race around the time he got shot, so the milestone meant even more to him.
"I don't think you'd have known how difficult it was because I never let on," he said. "Part of my recovery mechanism was to cover it up and nobody really knew how much pain I was in.
"I didn't want people to make a fuss or look at me in a way that they thought I couldn't do something. "I am a proud man.
I just wanted to get back as close I was before as quickly as I could.
It's been such a difficult three years." Now the rewards for those hard years are here and the journey with Frampton starts on Saturday when the Belfast fighter returns to the ring against Mexican Horacio Garcia at the SSE Arena.
If Frampton returns to the top of the featherweight division with Moore as his coach, then there will be queues of fighters looking to be trained by the former warrior in the ring.
"I feel luck I've been given the opportunity to work with someone like Carl, not many would get this chance so early in their training career," said Moore.
"Certainly not one who was looking for a way out in the next couple of years. "Ever since that happened in Marbella, my outlook on life is different.
I am so much more grateful about every single aspect of my life. "I know it was the most horrendous thing that happened in Marbella, but if that didn't happen all this other good stuff may not be happening now.
"It's a test of character, it is a test to see if you can come through those set-backs, they teach you lessons and then you have to put them into stuff in the future.
"I've been through some horrible things in the last few years and now these are the rewards for it. "The lessons I learned over that period of time I will be able to pass on and help people.".
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét