On a night when David Haye held Manchester – if not the world – in the palm of his hand, Jamie Moore saw a proud career slip through his fingers.
 
The MEN Arena hasn’t rocked like this since Ricky Hatton’s heyday as Haye lived up to his pre-match pomp with a comprehensive destruction of John Ruiz. It was full of all the style and drama that only endorses the claim that he will be the saviour of heavyweight boxing.
 
But while the WBA champion drank in the adulation after his ninth round stoppage of his resilient opponent, Moore was left wondering where to go next.
 
Defeat after six rounds against little-known Belarusian, Sergey Khomitski, was not in the script for the former European light-middleweight champion in his first bout since losing his title to Ryan Rhodes last October.
 
Indeed, the 31-year-old had spoken of his desire to headline at this very venue for a rematch with the on-looking Matthew Macklin after stepping up to middleweight.
 
That looks a million miles away at this point with Moore now considering super-middleweight, if not retirement altogether.

Titanic
 
Should Saturday night prove to be the end of a career that has made him one of Manchester’s most popular fighters, it would be an ill-fitting finale for a man whose titanic battle with Macklin in 2006 has gone down in boxing folklore.
 
But back-to-back losses – his first since 2004 – and particularly in the manner in which they’ve come, will have the Salford man soul searching over the coming weeks.
 
Defeat to Khomitski had worrying echoes of his surrender to Rhodes, with Moore just not having the energy to compete for the entirety of the contest.
 
While he could draw comfort from the fact that, even drained at the weight, he had the better of Rhodes until running out of steam in the seventh, defeat to Khomitski in what was essentially a tune up, is a different matter entirely.
 
Despite taking charge in the early rounds against an opponent who had lost his previous three fights, Moore was visibly shaken at the end of the sixth before being retired by his corner.
 
“I felt there was no air in there again, but I've no excuses, the kid beat me fair and square,” he said. “Whether it's the will to win or I've had too many tough fights I don't know, but I've been with Oliver Harrison for 10 years and if he doesn't want me to carry on fighting, I've always had my life in his hands and I trust him 100million per cent.
 
“If he says it's a day, then it's a day.
 
“I didn't feel I was taking too many shots but I was losing a fight against somebody who wouldn't have stood a chance with me even 12 or 13 months ago.
 
“I'll go away for a break, maybe come back at 12stone - it's just one of those things.”
 
If that was a sombre start to an electric night, Haye soon had the temperature rising with his show-stopping display against Ruiz.

Proud
 
He needed little over 20 seconds to send the 38-year-old two-time world champion to the canvas and he would have him on the deck three more times before the American’s corner threw in the towel in the ninth.
 
Ever the showman, Haye looked like he could have ended it much sooner than that, taking his foot off the pedal on numerous occasions when his opponent looked there for the taking. It was almost as if the 29-year-old wanted to give the crowd more for their money.
 
Rarely has a Londoner been welcomed so heartily in the city, but he was given a reception that even Hatton would have been proud of.
 
And it was a fitting farewell to these shores for the time being with promoters, Golden Boy, now ready to unleash the Hayemaker on America.
 
Los Angeles is an early tip for his next bout – likely a rematch with Nikolay Valuev - and then one more before a massive Las Vegas date with one of the Klitschkos.
 
Haye would like any unification bout to be held at Wembley, but will ultimately go where the money dictates.
 
But a return to Manchester, he insists, is a distinct possibility.
 
“I got a great reception and I can’t see how it would be better anywhere else in the world,” he said. “I will definitely box here again.”

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