James Moore (16-2) came up short in his attempt to win the NABF junior middleweight title when he lost a unanimous decision to Yuri Foreman (27-0) on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Moore entered the ring with trainer Lennox Blackmoore and father Jim to his anthem, AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." As Foreman entered the ring it was Harry Keitt, Moore's former trainer, who carried the NABF on offer (Keitt is a member of Foreman's backroom team).

There were plenty of Irish in the crowd, and they and Foreman's fans created a good atmosphere in the hall.

Foreman started fast and seemed out to impress the "Shobox" team that was televising the fight live on Showtime. The 27-year-old connected with about five or six overhand rights on the left side of Moore's face.

Though not a power puncher, the accumulative effect of these scoring shots established a lead for the Belarus-born fighter.

Moore attempted to close off the space, but Foreman's lateral movement made him a hard target. This frustrated the Wicklow native to no end, and that was how the whole fight would proceed throughout.

Moore tried gamely to bring the fight to his opponent, but Foreman's continuous movement and faster hand speed made it difficult.

Moore had a good spell in the sixth and seventh and his opponent lost his gum shield three times during this period of the fight.

That said, Foreman was still winning the rounds, and in the fifth cut Moore's nose and in the eight opened a cut on the Irishman's left eyelid with a straight right that would require seven stitches afterwards.

After the fight Moore told the Irish Voice that in the third round one of the overhand rights caused an injury in his left ear that had a detrimental effect on his balance for the rest of the bout. But Moore also admitted afterwards that if he were not able to catch him before that point, then regardless of the ear injury he would have had problems finding him the rest of the night.

Moore battled on and fought a good final round, landing a few shots, but it was not to be his night. At the final bell the judges came back with the score of 100-90, 99-90 and 99-91 in favor or Foreman.

"I think it was good fight. From the outside it might have looked easy but it was a really tough fight. I did my best to give Showtime a good performance. I am a boxer and not a fighter," Foreman told the Irish Voice afterwards.

When asked if Moore had ever hurt him, Foreman said, "Maybe one punch in the second round but it didn't really affect me."

"Unfortunately in the third round he (James) burst his eardrum, now that isn't an excuse or anything but Foreman's punches weren't hurting him as he is not a power puncher, and James' balance was all over the place," said Moore senior after the fight.

In the dressing room afterwards Blackmoore talked about his fighter's night.

"It (the ear injury) had an effect but I think the movement was too much from Yuri and that frustrated James, who came to fight, you know. But we are going to regroup again and come back," he said.

"We had a plan, we had a plan to use our legs in and out, side to side and use right hook left hook for Yuri's lateral movement; right hook left hand, but he (James) wasn't putting those shots together as Yuri was moving too much for him."

A disappointed Moore admitted he hadn't followed the game plan and was succinct in describing his performance.

"I couldn't get the shots off. I landed one clean hard right in the third round and one in the early rounds. I landed two real hard good rights," he said.

Of the recurring gum shield loss in the mid section of the fight Moore commented, "I hit him with an uppercut the first time it was the uppercut that got the shield out, but the second time he spit it out."

That said, Moore was complimentary to his opponent. "He fought his fight. I didn't fight mine. He was the better man tonight."

In other news, light welterweight Dean Byrne (9-0) will fight Francisco Rios Gil at the Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California this Saturday night.

In Ireland, Darren Sutherland will make his professional debut Thursday night at DCU in a bill that will also see Paul Hyland (12-1) take on Eugene Heagney (7-1) at bantamweight.