Today marks the ninth anniversary of one of the greatest fights in modern boxing history.

On the 29th of September 2006 Matthew Macklin and Jamie Moore engaged in a relentless battle for Moore’s British light middleweight title. At the time, Birmingham-born Macklin had previously held the Irish middleweight title, while Salford’s Moore would later go on to win the Irish light middleweight belt.

While it may be a cliché, the pair’s fight that night in the unassuming George Carnall Leisure Centre was one for the ages. While both friendly and respectful of each other before the bout, the 28 and a half minutes they spent in the ring would cultivate a lasting relationship that only boxing can.

Macklin came out like a train, milling into Moore who somehow weathered the storm brought by the Tipperary Tornado. Macklin later revealed that he struggled to make the weight and tired early on, but this did not stop the Brummie relentlessly pouring forward.

Many have called the bout the British or Irish version of Gatti-Ward, and it is perhaps fitting that Round 9 in this fight is also three minutes that everyone particularly remembers. Both had their moments, with control swinging one way then the other, and both seemingly only throwing, and landing, power shots. Indeed it was perhaps a last stand for the exhausted Macklin who was heavily knocked out by the southpaw in the following stanza – but there were no losers that night in Manchester.

Relive the epic fight below: