From the ring, to a jail cell, and back again

Ralph (Junior) Moar is once again making headlines, but this time for all the right reasons.

The 32-year-old Métis/Ojibwe is scheduled to fight Ronald Johnson for the World Boxing Council (WBC) Intercontinental light heavyweight championship on Sept. 16 in Las Vegas.

Moar was born in Manitoba, but moved to Richmond, B.C in 2006. He is thrilled people are once again talking about his boxing skills.

He’s a former Canadian amateur champion who racked up an impressive 128-17 record in amateur bouts.
But after turning pro in 2000 and having just two fights, Moar seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. In reality, however, he was in a Manitoba jail, spending almost five years locked up for his involvement in a gang-related shooting.

Moar said he was a member of the Zig Zag Crew, a Winnipeg-based gang affiliated with the Hells Angels.
“I didn’t get to spend much time out on the streets,” Moar said, adding he was incarcerated shortly after joining the gang.

Though he considered himself a gang member during his time in prison, Moar said he decided to abandon that lifestyle upon his release in 2005.

Besides wanting to straighten his life out, Moar was also concerned about the welfare of his parents. While he was in prison one of his brothers died of leukemia.

“It broke my heart to see what I was doing to my parents,” Moar said.

Moar’s mother Yvonne is an Ojibwe from Manitoba’s Grand Rapids First Nation. And his father Ralph is Metis and from Crane River, Man.

Though he’s named after his father, Moar prefers to be called Junior.

“I think I’m too young to be called Ralph,” he said.
Shortly after being released from jail, Moar realized he wanted to get back into the boxing game. But he was definitely not in ring shape.

Jail definitely changed him. He ballooned to 250 pounds, about 80 pounds more than he used to be.

“I was just eating because I was depressed being in jail,” he said.

Plus Moar was not thrilled he had become what he felt was another Aboriginal youth in trouble.

“(Before) I had prided myself on not being one of those individuals,” he said.

After his release from prison, Moar decided he needed a change of scenery so he opted to head to the west coast.
He hooked up with former Olympian Manny Sobral, who now manages fighters out of the North Burnaby Boxing Club.

“I had heard about (Moar) before,” Sobral said. “I knew he was the Canadian amateur senior champion at 19 years old. But I didn’t know what happened to him after that.”

The pair spoke several times before Moar moved out to B.C. to train under Sobral, who had represented Canada in the middleweight category at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Though he learned about Moar’s gang life and incarceration, Sobral said he was not concerned about working with him.

This is in large part because Sobral is also employed with the Vancouver school board where he works with his share of at-risk Aboriginal youth.

“I wasn’t leery of working with (Moar),” Sobral said. “I see these youth all the time. They’re not bad kids.
Sometimes they make bad decisions. But I was willing to work with Junior.”

Moar has successfully revived his pro career. He now sports a record of nine wins and three losses.

And he was crowned the Canadian light heavyweight champion in 2009. He defended his crown this past March in a fight in his hometown at the River Rock Casino.

Moar has certainly disassociated himself from his previous gang life. Along with his wife he also manages a baby furniture store in Richmond.

Of Moar’s 12 fights in the professional ranks, 11 of those have been in Canada. He’s hoping the near future brings him some lucrative paydays south of the border.

“I want to move on to the next step,” he said.

Moar’s career will indeed receive a significant boost if he can add the WBC Intercontinental belt to his resume in September.

He’ll be up against Johnson, an American who lives in Las Vegas. Johnson’s pro record is 11-1.

Moar is expected to also fight for the North American Boxing Federation’s light heavyweight title in October.
He’s hoping to remain as active as possible because he believes he’ll only be fighting for a maximum of three more years.

“I don’t see myself boxing after 35,” he said. “I don’t want to be 40 and still be boxing. I don’t want to be a punch drunk boxer. It’s a young man’s game.”