{"id":4209,"date":"2010-08-17T16:34:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T20:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=4209"},"modified":"2010-08-17T16:34:46","modified_gmt":"2010-08-17T20:34:46","slug":"usba-heavyweight-champion-maurice-harris-is-back-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=4209","title":{"rendered":"USBA Heavyweight Champion Maurice Harris Is Back on Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Full Court Press Release<\/strong><\/p>\n

The roller-coaster career of Maurice \u201cSugar Moe\u201d Harris, winner of the 2002 \u2018Thunderbox Heavyweight Tournament,\u201d is riding high once again, coming off of his solid August 6 victory against IBF #15 prospect Nagy \u201cDominican Dynamite\u201d Aguilera for the vacant USBA heavyweight title.<\/p>\n

Harris (24-14-2, 10 KOs), who has beaten some of the best and also lost to journeymen, out-boxed and out-worked the much younger Aguilera (16-3, 11 KOs) to earn a unanimous decision (117-111 twice, 115-113), as well as the USBA belt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good being a champion again,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI\u2019m one step closer to my dream of fighting for the world title. I\u2019d be honored to fight one of the Klitschko brothers. They\u2019re both strong and big. I like them a lot, personally, having worked with them in 2005 in Venice Beach (CA). That\u2019s when I got my first tattoo. Vitaly and Wladimir are great people, but I\u2019m on a mission right now, so we\u2019d have to put friendships aside. It\u2019s just business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNagy had a big first round knockout of (former world champion Oleg) Maskaev last year,\u201d Boxing 360 Director of Boxing Bob Duffy noted. \u201cHe got knocked out by (Samuel) Peter, but he was still coming off of two impressive wins, and was rated No. 15 by the IBF. He\u2019s a good young fighter but Maurice is the most experienced American heavyweight. He has a very good jab, experience. and now he\u2019s confident with Boxing 360 supporting him. All of that could lead to a world heavyweight title fight. Who knows what the heavyweight division will look like next year?<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of fighters near the top wait for their title shot and don\u2019t fight too often. I don\u2019t blame them for waiting, but we\u2019re keeping Maurice busy, and he should be fighting again in October or November. The more active he is, especially with him as the new USBA champion, the higher up he should move in the ratings.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Harris lost his only title shot to former world champion Chris Byrd, ironically, by 12-round decision for the USBA belt. \u201cWinning \u2018Thunder Box\u2019 was cool but this is better because I have a belt,\u201d Maurice commented. \u201cI lost what I set out to do to against Chris Byrd \u2013 win a title belt — but it just wasn\u2019t my time. Now that I\u2019m here, though, I don\u2019t plan on leaving very soon. I\u2019m fighting for my family and I\u2019m getting closer and closer to my ultimate dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very spiritual and Big Daddy (God) up there made this possible. I\u2019ve proven that anything can happen if you believe in yourself, work hard, and surround yourself with good people. I learned from Mario (Boxing 360 owner Dr. Mario Yagobi) to never take no for an answer. He lifts me, instills confidence in me, in and out of the ring. We respect each other. Now, I just do my job. Mario takes care of boxing things outside the ring. He has taught me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duffy, a veteran boxing promoter and former NYAC boxing commissioner, appreciates the difference in the new Maurice Harris. \u201cWith all Maurice has been through during his career,\u201d Duffy remarked, \u201cinstead of chasing opponents for him to fight, now, we\u2019re getting calls about guys to fight him. Boxing 360 isn\u2019t here to protect Maurice Harris, rather to keep him active, in order to position him to fulfill his dream of fighting for the world heavyweight title.\u201d<\/p>\n

A classic example of an underachiever for most of his 17 \u00bd-year pro career, the reborn- Harris hopes to parlay his USBA title-winning performance into a memorable last hurrah. \u201cI\u2019m a serious person,\u201d the 34-year-old New Jersey fighter concluded. \u201cBoxing is my passion, my fulltime job; I love it to death. I\u2019m already back working in the gym. I\u2019m not going to stop working until I retire. I\u2019ll never duck anybody. All it\u2019s about is balancing my team, family and good living. I\u2019ve seen it all and I like where I\u2019m at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Full Court Press Release The roller-coaster career of Maurice \u201cSugar Moe\u201d Harris, winner of the 2002 \u2018Thunderbox Heavyweight Tournament,\u201d is riding high once again, coming off of his solid August 6 victory against IBF #15 prospect Nagy \u201cDominican Dynamite\u201d Aguilera for the vacant USBA heavyweight title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[319,488,1614],"class_list":["post-4209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-heavyweight","tag-maurice-harris","tag-usba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4209"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}