Moylette’s late flourish decisive
The Westport man, world youth champion in 2008, was 8-7 down after the second round before turning in another sensational third round to finish in typical fashion.
IABA president Tommy Murphy admitted it was a performance similar to the box-off when he came from way behind to beat Ross Hickey to clinch his place on the team.
“My heart was in my mouth because he left it very, very late,” Murphy admitted.
“He was very negative in the first round and again at the start of the second but then, in the third, he really turned on the style. He was absolutely brilliant. He banged the Lativan with left and right hooks to the head and body. He was full of confidence and that’s the thing about Ray Moylette — he is so confident and then he has the class and the talent to back it up.
“He now meets the Indian (Manoj Kumar) on Sunday and, having watched him in action, I don’t think he will be as formidable as the Latvian. He is very open and that should suit Ray, but he will have to dominate the fight from the outset because, from here on everyone deserves respect.”
In what will be a massive weekend for Ireland’s boxers, Paulstown middleweight Darren O’Neill is in action against Glodi Eneste (Norway) and Mullingar lightweight David Oliver Joyce fights Mohammad Momevad (Iran) today.
One of five Irish boxers in action tomorrow, newly-crowned European light heavyweight champion Joe Ward is hoping to celebrate his 18th birthday in style over the coming weeks. He was seeded two and, after a first round bye, meets Dilovarshakh Abdurakhmanov (Tajikistan).
“I am hoping to do well but I am just going to take it one fight at a time,” he said.
“It’s been a big step up from world youths to senior, harder than you would think, but I am ready for that challenge now. I know I am still young but I’m developing and I’ve done an awful lot of physical work to get the strength I will need because the opponents I will be meeting now are going to be different, experienced and stronger.
“But I love this. I am enjoying every moment of it. What I am achieving at the moment is great and I want to achieve more and there is so much more to achieve. I just want to enjoy it all.”
Darren O’Neill has been plagued by hand injuries and that’s what kept him out of this year’s European championships when he had been hoping to improve on his silver medal from 2010.
“Hopefully I can make up for all that here,” he said.
“This my second world championships and obviously it’s the biggest one for me so far. I am in good shape. I’ve been training hard all year round — even with the injury — I never really took a break unlike other years when I have been out injured I would be out for a few weeks and when I would come back in I’d have so much weight to lose.”
Connie Sheehan is the fourth member of Martin Fennessy’s Clonmel squad to box in a world championships this year and, while he had a dreadful draw with the world and Olympic champion Robert Cammarelle (Italy) waiting in the wings, he plans to make the most of it.
“This is my second world championships and I’ve been to two Europeans so I have plenty of experience,” he said. “I am ready for the breakthrough. I have loads of experience now. I met the eventual winner at the European championships and the decision could have gone either way so I want to get over this one first and then we’ll see what happens.”
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