AMERICA AT LARGE:There's a lot at stake for James Moore this Saturday as he fights live on television

EVEN KNOWLEDGEABLE insiders were shocked by the ease with which Manny Pacquiao disposed of longtime icon Oscar De La Hoya in Las Vegas last weekend, but James Moore was not among them,

The Arklow light middleweight had an insider's view of the Filipino's preparation for what loomed as a contemporary evocation of David v Goliath.

Moore, who will face undefeated Yuri Foreman for the North American Boxing Federation title Saturday night in Atlantic City, spent the past month training at Freddie Roach's Wild Card gym in California, where he sparred extensively with former world champion Roman Karmazin - and accompanied Pacquiao on his morning runs.

Having watched Roach's game plan for De La Hoya unfold in the gym, said Moore, "I was expecting Manny to do pretty much what he had planned to do in the fight, so none of that surprised me. What did surprise me was De La Hoya's response. There wasn't one. He had no answers at all."

The irony implicit in a bout between an native Irishman and a Belarus-born Israeli citizen for a North American title is not lost on Moore ("Funny old world, isn't it?"), but more important is that the Foreman fight will be televised live as the co-feature to Showtime's Kendall Holt v Demetrius Hopkins world title fight at Boardwalk Hall, providing his most extensive national exposure.

The participants are hardly strangers, having sparred extensively over the years. Even before Moore emigrated in 2005 to join countryman John Duddy in the Irish Ropes stable, he had occasionally travelled to America to train. A longtime Irish international with more than 300 amateur bouts to his credit, Moore shared the ring with Foreman at the Duva gym in New Jersey five years ago, and, in the four years since his professional debut, he and Saturday night's adversary sparred countless rounds together at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn.

"I think it will be helpful to both, since they have some knowledge of each other, but I don't think it's a particular advantage for either of them," says Gleason's proprietor, Bruce Silverglade. "But I do expect Saturday's fight to be interesting - and entertaining to the public."

"They won't have many secrets from one another. Moore knows that to win against the slick-punching Foreman he will have to apply pressure and hope to break him down with a body attack, but he realises that could be easier said than done should Foreman, as he has been known to do, decides to run like a thief in the night.

"He might be a little bit faster than I am, and obviously I've got to try to close the gap," said Moore, "but I really think he's going to have to stop and fight at some point. The last time he fought on national television (against Vinroy Barrett, on October's Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik undercard) he won easy enough, but it was such a boring performance that I understand Showtime were reluctant to put him on this one.

"If he hopes to remain a televised attraction, he's going to have to at least put on some semblance of a show, and that's to my advantage," Moore explained.

When Moore teamed up with Duddy under the Irish Ropes banner, for a time the two were considered equals. Although Duddy exuded star power with American audiences from the beginning, Silverglade, noting Moore's more extensive amateur background, liked what he saw from the Wicklow man's work in the gym.

"I'm actually more impressed with James than I am with John," Silverglade said a few years ago. "James is a much more solid fighter. John has a more outgoing personality, and his boxing style quickly made him a fan favourite, but once James gets out of John's shadow, he's going to be just as big of a star." (Contacted yesterday about the Moore/Duddy comparison, Silverglade said "that still accurately reflects my view".)

Two years ago, chafing under what he considered favouritism toward Duddy, Moore staged a one-man boxer rebellion and was rewarded by being handed an outright release from his contract with Irish Ropes.

Somewhat ironically, Duddy himself recently initiated divorce proceedings against Irish Ropes.

The most immediate result of the schism between Duddy and his longtime promoters is that while Moore is fighting Foreman on Showtime, Duddy's proposed January HBO debut against Ronald Hearns is in tatters.

"I spoke to John a month ago, just before I went to California," said Moore of his longtime stablemate. "I think he's come to see that I might have been right all along."

As for Foreman, "the strength of this fight is the contrasting styles", said veteran analyst Steve Farhood, who will furnish the commentary on Saturday night's telecast. "Yuri is an extremely fast boxer with excellent movement. James is a classic pressure fighter who relies on body punching to weaken his foe. He's really going to have to apply the pressure to limit Foreman's movement, because it's a lot easier to hit a stationary target than it is a moving one."

While Moore declined to label the encounter a "must-win" fight, he is all to well aware of the effect its outcome will have on the careers of the participants.

"They're two fighters on the way up, with a lot to gain and a lot to lose," said Farhood. "They both deserve a lot of credit for taking this fight at such a formative stage of their careers. They each have a lot to protect, so I laud them both for accepting such a tough challenge."

Saturday's bout will be Moore's 18th as a professional, and he will be seeking his 17th win. The lone blip in the road came last July, when he followed his most impressive win to date (over Colombian warhorse Juan Carlos Candelo at Madison Square Garden) by dropping a decision to late substitute Gabriel Rosado on a smaller card at Brooklyn's Aviator Arena.

Moore righted the ship next time out, outpointing former contender Christian Lloyd Joseph on a Broadway Boxing card at BB King's Nightclub. He still maintains that, despite an off night, he should have gotten the decision against Rosado.

"That's what concerns me most about this fight - the judges," he said two days ago. "I saw Foreman against Anthony Thompson and Andrey Tsurkan, and I thought he lost both of them. He wound up winning split decisions in those two fights, but by my reckoning he should be 22-2, not 24-0."

An episode in the Tsurkan fight also left Moore wondering about Foreman's mettle.

"He got cut, and when he came back to his corner between rounds and they were working on him, he was sitting on the stool complaining that he couldn't see," recalled Moore.

"Well, look, we all get cut. It's part and parcel of boxing, but you don't complain about it," said Moore. "He was very lucky they didn't stop the fight, because the commission doctor was right there in the corner, and usually all they need to do is hear you say that and the fight's over - and he'd been cut by a punch, not a butt."

In any case, said Moore, "it gives me something to think about. If can rough him up a bit, maybe I can get under his skin."