Buster Drayton (born March 2, 1952) is an American former boxer who won the IBF world title at light middleweight (154lb). Drayton turned pro in 1978 and won the vacant IBF light middleweight title with a decision win over Carlos Santos in 1986….then he defended the belt twice before losing it to Matthew Hilton the following year. In 1988 he took on WBA light middleweight titleholder Julian Jackson, but was defeated via TKO in the third round. He retired in 1995 at the age of 43…..with a career record of 40 wins with 28 by KO and 15 losses and 1 draw.
Davey Moore (9 June 1959 – 3 June 1988) was an American world junior middleweight champion boxer…. being the second of two professional champions who shared the name in the second half of the 20th century….to which each died around the age of thirty….with the first Davey Moore (born 1933) as a result of punishment in a fight….and the second in an accident at his home when his car rolled over him and drug him to death….whereas the latter was born in New York during the championship reign of the first. As a boxer, he rose quickly through the junior middleweight ranks….and perhaps too quickly, according to some boxing writers and critics. One of Moore’s early wins was in June 1981 over Kevin Rooney….who would later train Mike Tyson. After winning eight professional fights,….with five being by knockout…. the WBA named him their # 10 challenger….when in February 1982, he traveled to Japan, where he knocked out defending champion Tadashi Mihara in the sixth round….while winning the WBA world junior middleweight title. In April 1982 he defended his world title against Charlie Weir in Johannesburg, South Africa….while taking five rounds to knock him out. Then in July 1982 he fought former world champion Ayub Kalule, whom he stopped in ten. Moore started 1983 by beating challenger Gary Guiden, by knockout in four. He had been scheduled to fight Tony Ayala Jr. but Ayala was convicted of burglary and rape and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Next, Moore defended against former two-division world champion Roberto Durán. Moore appeared to be overconfident against an aging ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran…. but Duran totally outclassed him and dished out vicious punishment….while 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.
