Moylette wins European boxing gold in Turkey

Ray Moylette has won light-welterweight gold at boxing's European Continental Championships in Ankara, Turkey, with a superb win over England's Thomas Stalker.

Moylette fought a controlled and patient fight against Stalker, with the judges scoring the fight 18-10 overall, with the round scores at 5-5, 7-3, 6-2.

The St Anne's BC pugilist, fighting in the blue corner, emerged into a laser lightshow to the sound of Eye of the Tiger in Ankara, sporting a bruised right-eye.

There was nothing bruised about his first round performance though, as he tore into his English opponent.

Moylette lashed into Stalker from the bell and scored some early punches. However, Stalker came back strongly in the round, with his left jab proving troublesome.

Indeed, the Irish fighter had a two-score lead heading into the final minute, but Stalker landed two late lefts to tie the first round score at 5-5, as the bell sounded.

The second round saw Stalker start the brighter of the two 64kg boxers; however, despite his huff and puff the Englishman failed to make much inroads into Moylette's tight defensive stance.

A flurry of rights, followed by a powerful left hook saw Moylette move into the lead. Stalker kept in touch with a skilful two-hit combo - a left hook being the stand out punch.

Moylette always had the more energy of the two fighters and pushed himself further clear with a right hook, left jab. The judges weighted the round heavily in favour of Moylette, marking the card at 7-3. That left the Irishman 12-8 clear going into the final round.

Needing a strong final three minutes to overturn a four-point defecit Stalker again started with ferocity. But Stalker failed to land much of meaning early in the third, with Moylette instead picking off points on the counter-attack. A hefty left jab leaving Stalker visibly shaken.

Stalker came again and went for crucial scores, but failed to get them. A big missed right hook from Stalker allowed Moylette to claim a few more crucial scores, before he finished the tie with two late points from a left jab and an uppercut, the last point coming with 20 seconds on the clock. At that point, Moylette smelled blood and danced the dance, toying with Stalker.

Joe Ward will also fight for gold in the light-heavyweight division later this afternoon, against Russian light-heavyweight Nikita Ivanov.

This article appeared on http://www.rte.ie/sport/ 24th June 2011