Tuesday, June 11, 2002
ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION from Mike Tyson? I'm not entirely sure, but here's the deal: After Iron Mike's "I'm here for my beating, sir" performance against Lennox Lewis, the victor's trainer, Detroit legend Emanuel Steward, told Tyson how he's still a big fan and did a tiny bit of reminiscing:
"Remember Roderick Moore?" Steward asked.
During our brief boxing careers in Detroit in the mid-1970s, my brother Terence and I trained at the Crowell Recreation Center in Detroit. It wasn't quite the Kronk Gym, where Steward was training Tommy Hearns and other notables. It didn't even have punching bags. We got to punch hanging mats, when we weren't punching each other.
Terence and I trained mainly with two other kids: David Stubbs (beating me in photo above) and Roderick Moore.
Google searches tell me that a Roderick Moore won the 1983 national Golden Gloves title in the 139-and-under weight class, that he fought out of the Kronk Gym, and that he was a truck driver when the Detroit News did a "Where are they now?" story on Kronk alumni in February 2001. I don't know what Roderick might have had to do with Mike Tyson, or even if the Golden Gloves champ and Steward protege was the same Roderick Moore that I (but mostly Terence) sparred against, but I think it's a safe bet that little Roderick grew up a bit and moved from Crowell to Kronk.
Or would that be two degrees of separation?
"Remember Roderick Moore?" Steward asked.
During our brief boxing careers in Detroit in the mid-1970s, my brother Terence and I trained at the Crowell Recreation Center in Detroit. It wasn't quite the Kronk Gym, where Steward was training Tommy Hearns and other notables. It didn't even have punching bags. We got to punch hanging mats, when we weren't punching each other.
Terence and I trained mainly with two other kids: David Stubbs (beating me in photo above) and Roderick Moore.
Google searches tell me that a Roderick Moore won the 1983 national Golden Gloves title in the 139-and-under weight class, that he fought out of the Kronk Gym, and that he was a truck driver when the Detroit News did a "Where are they now?" story on Kronk alumni in February 2001. I don't know what Roderick might have had to do with Mike Tyson, or even if the Golden Gloves champ and Steward protege was the same Roderick Moore that I (but mostly Terence) sparred against, but I think it's a safe bet that little Roderick grew up a bit and moved from Crowell to Kronk.
Or would that be two degrees of separation?
