News last week of St Anne’s Boxing Club’s Ray Moylette’s progress through the early stages of the World Youth Boxing Championship to guarantee himself a medal was greeted with joy and pride. But as the weekend progressed the remarkable young boxer kept the good news coming all the way to the gold medal.
Over the course of seven days he took on five opponents and beat them all to claim the gold medal in the 60kg grade, seeing off Danilyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan in a nerve- racking final by 3-1 to write himself into the record books of Irish and international boxing.
His Mexican adventure began many years ago in the St Anne’s gym as a six-year-old and last week all that training and preparation came to fruition as he saw off the best in the world. First up he took on Jefferson Silva of Brazil and saw him off 21-2, then it was fellow Celtic boxer Fred Evans of Wales, who gave him a much tougher bout which Moylette came through by 11-9 to put him into the last eight and one bout away from a medal. The quarter-final saw him take on Juan Garcia of Cuba who also gave him stern examination before he won the fight by two points. With a medal already secured, Moylette never let up and the semi-final saw him taking Aliaski Haltesich of Belarus and beat him 5-2. The final showdown was against the cadet world champion from Kazakhstan and, well, the rest is history as Moylette took on and beat the eastern European to take him to the top of the world.
