It’s not all that uncommon for boxers to get late starts in the sport and rise to prominence.

But for a former collegiate basketball player who was once an accountant and flight attendant to become a rising heavyweight contender that'll headline a card in New York on the same weekend that six boxers, including Manny Pacquiao, get inducted into the International Hall of Fame in New York? That’s something out of a movie script.

The calculated risk Brandon Moore took to become a boxer at 23 has paid huge dividends. Seven years after he first took up the sport, Moore will defend his IBF USBA heavyweight title in a 10-round bout against undefeated prospect Stanley Wright on Friday at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y., on DAZN.

The opportunity is one that Moore has been laser-focused on, given the challenge Weight presents and the significance of headlining a card on Hall of Fame weekend, let alone the same one for the eight-division world champion's induction.

“I’ve been in the lab working on my technique and working on keeping guys away from me because I’m throwing my jab and they want to run into you,“ Moore told The Ring. “I’m so excited I get to fight in front of Manny Pacquiao.“

“He came from nowhere, but he brought it from the bottom,” he added. “I’ve been to the Philippines. That’s an amazing story. The odds of you making it out are like 0 percent and he was the one that did it. I love a story like that.”

Pacquiao will potentially be in attendance Friday for Moore vs Wright.

Moore, 31, comes from a family of athletes. He and his five other brothers all went on to either play their respective sports collegiately or professionally. His younger brother, Shaq Moore, who plays for FC Dallas in Major League Soccer, played for the U.S. National Soccer Team and has the fastest goal in the Gold Cup history when he found the back of the net 20 seconds into a 1-0 win over Canada on July 18, 2021.

Brandon played basketball at Southeastern University for two seasons in Lakeland, Florida, and was named the Freshman of the Year in the 2012-13 season in the Sun Conference. Moore transferred to Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and got his degree in accounting and finance in December 2016.

Growing up in an uber-competitive family laid the foundation for Moore (17-1, 10 KOs) to eventually put on a pair of gloves. As he was progressing in his accounting job at Deloitte, he got up to 320 pounds, nearly 100 heavier than his normal weight as a basketball player at Southeastern. One day, his father, Wendell Moore, grabbed Brandon’s stomach and told him that he was too heavy.

“In my family, that's him trying to say, ‘Yo, you’re not meeting the standard of what you need to be doing,’” Moore said.

Not long after, during a break at Deloitte, Moore walked into the Winter Haven Boxing gym in 2018, where he trains to this day, for the first time. The boxing gym brought him back to his days on the basketball court, and not long after he decided he wanted to pursue the sport further. A year later, the 6-foot-6 heavyweight quit his accounting job to make boxing his sole focus.

Moore rapidly ascended the ranks, winning multiple amateur tournaments before he turned pro in 2020. He won the first 12 fights of his pro career before inking a promotional deal with Top Rank on Aug. 31, 2023.

After notching two wins under the Top Rank banner, Moore's lone loss came May 18, 2024, when he was stopped in the fifth round by rising undefeated heavyweight contender Richard Torrez Jr. (13-0, 11 KOs). While Moore felt like he could have continued and potentially made a comeback late in the fight, the blemish served as a valuable and necessary lesson for him.

“You've got to be humble at all times and be prepared at all times and make sure that you’re taking training camp serious,” Moore said. “I was on my high horse at the time. I was winning fights, I hadn’t lost yet. It put me right where I need to be for this position that I’m in now.”

Now, Moore is signed with Salita Promotions and is on a three-fight win streak, with two coming by stoppage and his last outing being a win via disqualification against Skylar Lacy to become the IBF USBA heavyweight champ on Feb. 2. Moore was pitching a shutout in a rough-and-tumble fight in which Lacy had three points deducted until referee Steve Willis disqualified him 51 seconds into the eighth round. He tackled Moore through the ropes.

Moore now has his sights set on Wright in his first defense of his regional title. Wright (14-0, 11 KOs) earned his shot with an upset victory over Jeremiah Milton on Jan. 24. Moore was in attendance for that fight in Plant City, Florida, and Wright’s performance immediately grabbed his attention. He knows the challenge that lies ahead if he’s going to continue to make a name for himself.

“He dug deep, and he went those 10 rounds, and he won the fight,” Moore said “That got me real serious. That let me know that in any division, but especially heavyweight, if you get caught, it can mess up a lot of things. Stanley Wright, I’m taking him extremely serious.

“He’s an undefeated fighter. He hasn’t lost yet, so he doesn’t know how to lose. He’s a formidable opponent. He just beat a reputable guy in Jeremiah Milton. He’s who I’m thinking about every single day. I don’t think he’s going to be a light task, but I think I’m going to come out with the win.”