Pride Of A City - The Impact Of Jamie Moore & Nigel Travis

Jamie Moore & Nigel Travis – \”The two cities, Manchester and Salford, can similarly be viewed as one – geographically if not culturally – for they clasp each other tightly on a map, like a fat aunt (Manchester) clutching her Salfordian niece.\” A Quote from a book by Mick Middles named Factory – the story of the record label.

The Impact Of Jamie Moore & Nigel Travis

I see many similarities in boxing with this consummate bit of wording in terms of the geographical location and cultural one with Salfordians having to support Manchester\’s boxers as their own due to the fact that we\’ve seen notable names come out of the city like Ricky Hatton and Anthony Crolla both being world champions in their careers, fighting the elite names like Floyd Mayweather Jr and Vasyl Lomachencko whereas Salford hasn\’t had anybody reach those same heights.

The first British and only world champion from the \’dirty old town\’ was Joe Bowker, finishing his career in 1919 with a record of 43-10-1. Records show he\’d won his first British title in 1902 and successfully fought for the \’world bantamweight championship\’ in 1904 in a time where fighters would still box for 20 rounds!

Since then there has been nobody that\’s been able to emulate a similar success, although Jamie Moore won the British Lonsdale belt outright and reached the European championship level winning the EBU super welterweight strap in 2009, defending it once successfully.

Jamie Moore himself was involved in some epic fights during his career, the most notable and memorable with Matthew Macklin.

Fighting at a level most boxers would dream of the man from the town of Walkden did box for a WBC world title eliminator against Ryan Rhodes coming up short losing by 7th round TKO.

Despite being beaten in the eliminator and never boxing for world honours his achievements haven\’t gone unnoticed or underappreciated by the people of the city where he has recently opened a boxing gym -Walkden ABC where there is also a facility called \’the den\’ – a community hub for the youth.

Being from the area myself I have seen the impact it has had on the local community with the successful amateur shows in the Ellesmere Centre proving how committed he is to driving something so positive in Walkden and Little Hulton, an area that\’s been crying out for somebody like himself and his team to do something like this so it can potentially have an effect on peoples lives that may not be given the chance to thrive or at least feel comfortable in an environment anywhere else.

The Impact Of Jamie Moore & Nigel Travis

Twelve years since retiring Moore has achieved further accolades from his direct involvements in the ring as well as outside, winning coach of the year in 2018 with the partnership of Nigel Travis guiding ex-world champions such as Carl Frampton and Rocky Fielding. Moore also trains Jack Catterall, the man from Chorley who was on the wrong end of a controversial split decision in February 2022 whilst challenging Josh Taylor for the 140lb undisputed status.

Now at 43 years of age Moore has just guided fellow Salfordian Marc \’Livewire\’ Leach to the British super bantamweight title. Both boxer and trainer have been a part of each other\’s lives for a long time and it\’s the former European champion that has guided Marc\’s entire professional career with friend and colleague Nigel Travis who himself has a boxing gym – Mosside fire station boxing club, where he has also had a huge impact in the community, putting on several amateur shows himself with the most recent event coming last week(Thursday 2nd June)

After winning the Lonsdale belt in March this year at York Hall \’livewire\’ is focused on cleaning up the division domestically and securing the strap outright. With huge domestic scalps already against Qais Ashfaq and Chris Bourke, he will feel he is more than capable of doing so.

Leach makes the first defence of his British super-bantamweight title against Liam Davies 11-0 as the headline event at Telford International Centre on June 11th Live on BT Sport.

Amassing a record of 18-1-1 fighting mostly on small hall shows and going abroad many feel that at just 28 years of age he has plenty of time on his side as well as being equipped with the right tools to go one further than his trainer and match the achievements of Bowker in 1904 by becoming a world champion that the city of Salford can call their own. And not that of their fat aunts.

Even though many Salfordians are extremely passionate supporters of the Mancunian ex-world champs Hatton and Crolla it\’s about time the 118-year hiatus of Salford not having a world champion is over and just like they were for Manchester, be the pride of the city – The Pride of Salford!

By Dan Kelly

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