Southpaw Jinx

Lefties all over the world had good cause to celebrate on this day 13 years ago, as Michael Moorer won a twelve-round unanimous decision from a listless Evander Holyfield to become the first southpaw heavyweight champion in boxing history. It was not the most thrilling fight in the world, although Moorer did come back from a knockdown in the second round to win it on the scorecards. Evander had much less than his best stuff to begin with, and then suffered a dislocated shoulder during the bout. Afterwards, while having that shoulder checked out at the hospital, he was diagnosed with the heart condition that led to his one-year retirement.

Moorer, meanwhile, was not heavyweight champ for long. Not quite seven months after his victory over Evander, he thoroughly dominated George Foreman for nine rounds before Big George clocked him with a sledge-hammer straight right hand in the 10th. Moorer was down and out for the first loss of his career, and Foreman, at 45, was the heavyweight champion once again. Two years later Moorer would regain the vacant IBF belt with a win over Axel Schulz, but he lost it the following year in a rematch with Holyfield. In that fight, The Real Deal got some real revenge, putting Moorer on the canvas five times en route to an eighth-round stoppage.

(For those of you unaware of this, Moorer is on the comeback trail and, much like Holyfield, believes that he will recapture one of the heavyweight belts. His first fight in exactly two years was this past December, a first-round KO of one Cliff Couser, and then he fought again in March, winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Sedreck Fields, dropping Ole Sed's career record to 22-31-2. According to Boxrec, Moorer's next fight has not been made.)