Ray Moylette – ‘I played chess with him and I came out on top’

2011 European champion Ray Moylette showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with last night in the semi-finals of the National Senior Championships. The Mayo man took a split decision win over the highly rated Wayne Kelly in the light welterweight decision.

Afterwards the charismatic Westerner spoke to irish-boxing.com and gave his thoughts on the bout, feeling that “it was a cagey fight.”

“When you’re up at this level it’s not the stronger the boxer or the fitter the boxer, it’s your technical ability.”

“I believe it was a very close fight and I wouldn’t disagree with a split decision – but it was the right decision, I got the win, and at the end of the day I thought that was fair.”

It was a mature performance from Moylette against a tough foe in Kelly, who has dropped from welterweight for these champions and had a size advantage in the ring. Regarding his tactics for the fight, Moylette acknowledged that the Atholone man “was a very good defensive boxer.”

“He wanted me to rush him, sometimes I did and sometimes I stayed off, it was a bit of a mixed fight.”

“I wasn’t fully out of breath coming out of the ring, I did enough of what I had to do, there was no point going in there and taking silly chances with the risk of being caught.”

Indeed Moylette believes that he is ready for any type of fight, reasoning that “there was more in the tank if I needed to use it, obviously if I used different tactics.”

“That was like a game of chess in there, you don’t let a bull into a china shop or else he would have just picked me off.”

“I played chess with him and I came out on top.”

Moylette will be hoping for the ultimate checkmate next week when he takes on Dean Walsh in a rematch of the 2015 final – with the prize of the National title and a seat on the plane to the Olympic qualifiers on the line.