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Now he’s taking on the world.
Moore, a Logan High School graduate and two-time Coal Area Toughman light heavyweight champion, is set to box in the Toughman World Championships, which are to be held May 28-31 at the River Palace Entertainment Center inside Sam’s Town Casino in Tunica, Miss., just south of Memphis.
Moore, a former all-state baseball player at Logan, said he’s looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m pretty excited about it but it’s probably going to be my last time fighting for a while,” Moore said. “It’s my number one priority as of now.”
While those other priorities will come later he is focused now like a lazer on the worlds.
Moore was the crowd favorite the last two years at the Logan Toughman as he captured back-to-back light heavyweight championships. Moore beat Harts native Jeremiah “Stone Cold” Adkins each year in the finals and ended his local Toughman boxing career with a perfect 6-0 record.
Moore said he’s been training hard for the World Championships.
“Training has been pretty much similar to the other events except for the fact that I’m working a lot harder,” he said. “I’ve been going different places and getting some sparring in. I’m learning more and more things each and every day that I train and
I’ve been putting myself into workouts that I normally wouldn’t do.”
Moore said he expects to see some fierce competition at the worlds as top Toughman champion boxers from all across the country will converge on Tunica.
“This is the World Championships and I’m expecting nothing less than the best,” he said. “As far as the competition I’ll be facing world-class fighters and hopefully I will be ready. It’s for $20,000 and there will be some top-class fighters from all across the United States.”
Moore at 20 will be one of the youngest boxers at the event. He was just 18 and a senior in high school two years ago when he won his first Toughman title.
“I’ll probably be one of the youngest boxers there and I might be somewhat underestimated,” he said. “But with my training now and working out with some different guys and learning every day hopefully I will be ready and be a top contender and hopefully win the whole thing.”
Moore has been sparring with some of the area’s top talent.
He didn’t have to go any further than his own brother Jason McCloud, a former two-time Logan Toughman champion in his own right. Daniel Hensley, a former Toughman champion, a World Championships participant and pro boxer from Chapmanville, has also helped a lot.
“I’ve been sparring with Jason and with my trainer Daniel Hensley,” Moore said. “Daniel was eighth in the world when he boxed in the World Championships. Hopefully, I will be able to do some sparring with Billy Fox who is from Oceana. He fought Hector Macho Comacho about 15 years ago. He’s also been a Toughman official and he’s refereed many of my fights. I think in both championships that I’ve won he was the referee in both of those fights.”
Moore said he’s always looked up to McCloud, who he watched box as a youngster.
“I remember when my brother Jason won his first Toughman championship back in 1999. I was only 11-years-old and I always wanted to get into boxing but I was never allowed to fight,” Moore said. “I can remember telling all of my friends that as soon as I turned 18 (the minimum age allowed by the Toughman) that I was going to fight here in Logan in my hometown in the Toughman. A lot of people laughed at me and thought that it was funny and thought that I would get beat up and all of this but it was something that I had talked about for years and years. I got myself in there and I fought to win.”
Moore said sparring with McCloud in preparation for the World Championships has been pretty rough.
“It’s pretty tough sparring with my brother,” he said. “We’re rough on each other, especially him on me. When we spar he likes to bang on me a little bit. It gets a little out of hand at times but that’s what I need. I need somebody to get in there and rough me
up a little bit so I will be able to expect anything.”
Moore expects to compete again in the light heavyweight class (160 to 184 pounds) at the World Championships.
“I’m looking to weigh in at 175 or 180. Right now, I’m looking at about 190. Cutting weight won’t be a problem,” he said. “As hard as I train I expect to be down to about 175 or 180.”
After the Toughman Worlds, Moore will be reaching for his baseball cleats, glove and bat again. He’s headed this fall to South Carolina-Sumter to play collegiate baseball for the Fire Ants, which has former Logan High School assistant Greg Keaton and former Logan Wildcat player John Ryan Steele on the coaching staff.
South Carolina-Sumter has started something of a pipeline to Logan and southern West Virginia thanks to Keaton and Steele.
During the baseball off-season Sumter had signed Logan High School seniors Thomas Adkins and J.R. Blevins to national letters of intent.
Moore teammed with Adkins and Blevins last year as Logan won another sectional championship. Back in
2005, the three were members of the Wildcats’ Class AA state championship team.
Moore said he excited, too, to be getting back into baseball at the conclusion of the Toughman event.
“It’s been a long layoff and I’m real excited to get back into the game,” Moore said. “It’s something that I feel like I need to go ahead and do and give myself a chance to go and play again.”
This year’s Toughman World Championships are scheduled to be taped by Fox Sports Net and aired at a date and time to be announced later.
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