ON this day in 1954 Archie Moore fought Harold Johnson for the fifth time, at Madison Square Garden, New York. The fight was for Moore’s world light-heavyweight title. Archie Moore had won three of the previous four meetings between the pair. All the previous fights had gone the 10-round distance.

  1. FOR the fifth fight there was a rematch clause in the contract. If Johnson won, he would have had to give Moore a rematch within 90 days with a 30-30 purse split. Prior to the fight Moore had been a 2-1 betting favourite, but the odds narrowed to 8-5 by the day of the fight.
  1. TICKET prices for the fight started at $2, and were also sold at $4, $6, $8 and $10. A crowd of 8,327 produced a gross gate of $34,024. With the cost for the TV-radio fee set at $50000.
  1. AT the time of the fight the eight-count knockdown rule was waived during a championship fight, but referee Ruby Goldstein forgot this issuing a count to six before the bell rang when Johnson had dropped Moore in the 10th round, even though Moore had arose at three.
  1. THEN again in the 14th round when Moore dropped Johnson, Johnson arose at six but Goldstein continued his count to eight. “You know how it is,” he said afterwards.” You handle so many fights with the eight-count that you forget.”
  1. MOORE was behind on the two of the three official score cards going into the 14th but the 175-pound champion said he had no doubts about the outcome.
  1. AFTER Johnson rose from the knockdown, Moore swarmed over the swaying challenger until Referee Ruby Goldstein stepped in and stopped the bout. Handing Moore a 14th round technical knockout victory.
  1. MOORE went on to fight and lose to Rocky Marciano and Floyd Patterson for the for the world heavyweight title. Before finally retiring in 1963, after a final knockout win over Mike DiBiase, his 131st knockout victory of his career, which is still a record to this day for most knockout wins.
  1. IN 1990, Archie Moore became a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in Canastota. Finishing his career with an astonishing 185 wins, 23 losses, 11 draws and 1 no contest, with 131 official knockouts. Archie Moore died of heart failure in 1998, four days before his 82nd birthday.
  1. JOHNSON would continue to fight on for another 17 years after winning the world light-heavyweight Title in February 1961 with a ninth round technical knockout win over Jesse Bowdry, in Miami Beach, Florida.
  2. HAROLD JOHNSON ended his career with an impressive 76 wins from 88 fights, with only 11 defeats and 1 no contest. Johnson was also inducted into the International hall of fame in 1993.