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Olympic Dream lives on for Ray Moylette as Mayo star joins APB

An avenue to the Olympic Games may have been opened up for Ray Moylette.

The Mayo light welterweight’s hopes looked to have been extinguished last year when he lost the Dean Walsh in the National Elite final. The outcome of this clash was one that Moylette wholeheartedly disagreed with, and the 25 year old pledged to never fight in the National Stadium again.

moylette walsh
A disgusted Ray Moylette after the winner of his final with Dean Walsh was announced

However, the St Anne’s BC fighter has been handed an opportunity to box on the the AIBA Pro Boxing circuit. The Islandeady man has taken a short notice fight with in Istanbul against home fighter Batuhan Gözgeç on February 6th.

Turkey, of course, was the scene of Moylette’s greatest ever triumph when he won European Gold back in 2011 in Ankara. The charismatic Westerner however will need to be on top form against his Turkish opponent this Saturday if he is to secure victory in hostile territory.

Ray Moylette after winning European Gold

In terms of Olympic qualification, Moylette will need to fight in one additional APB bout to make himself eligible for the APB/WSB crossover qualifying event in May in Bulgaria. This tournament will be a straight knockout affair fought over the traditional 3×3 minute rounds format. If ‘Sting Ray’ does make it to this qualifier and finishes in the top three, Moylette would sensationally fulfill the qualification criteria for Rio.

However, Dean Walsh also has the opportunity to book his place on the plane to Brazil when he takes part in the traditional Olympic qualifiers in Turkey and Azerbaijan in April and June respectively. If both the Wexford man and Moylette secure qualification criteria, it sets up a potential Olympic box-off with plenty of bite.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish).

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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