Tuesday 26 August 2014 14:13, UK
Former champion boxer Jamie Moore has told Sky Sports News HQ he feared for his life after he was shot earlier this month in Marbella.
In an exclusive interview, Moore revealed he hopes to be back in the gym within six months – despite still having a bullet lodged in his leg.
“I’m feeling not too bad to be honest,” said Moore, who was in Spain in his new role as a trainer working with world title contender Matthew Macklin.
“Obviously I’m still a bit shocked about what happened and why but I’ve been quite positive all the way through. I’m just glad to be here because by all accounts it was a bit of a close shave.
“The doctors have said I’ve been very lucky. I’ve taken a bullet in the hip which has come down and fractured a bone and it’s lodged in between my main artery and it cannot be removed. They said it is safer to stay there. Half a centimetre to the left and within five minutes I would probably have died.
“I also was shot through the back of my left leg and it has caused the nerve in the bottom part of my leg to close down but once my body starts to heal then I’ll get full use of my leg back.
“Realistically it will be six months before I’m back in the gym. But I am a fighter. When I first got back to Manchester they said I was going to be in bed for four weeks, but I was back on my feet on crutches within four days.”
Moore was returning from a night out when he was approached and shot by a lone gunman, in what is believed to have been a case of mistaken identity.
He said: “I had got out of the taxi and was heading to the front door when a figure appeared out of the shadows. He was wearing a halloween mask and carrying a gun. Now, me and my mate are always playing practical jokes on each other and that’s what I thought it was, a joke.
“I carried on walking and said ’You know this is not even funny’ and that’s when he shot me. The police said he shot five bullets and I just lay there and saw that I was losing a lot of blood.
“I rang the emergency services and waited thinking ‘I am going to die’ because I had lost a lot of blood and I was going in and out of consciousness. Once they got me on the stretcher I passed out. All I remember was waking up in hospital and thinking ‘Thank God I am alive’.”
Moore has set his sights on getting back into the boxing business by the end of October, adding; “I love boxing and a lot of the principles of boxing are helping my get through this, the physical discipline the mental strength. I know I’ll get there but I’d like to be back in the corner with Tommy Coyle for his fight on October 26.”
