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2020 the year Moylette makes mark – ‘Sugar Ray’ has ‘big plans’ after frustrating 2019

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Ray Moylette [11(4)-1(0)] is determined to make his mark on 2020.

The Mayo lightweight didn’t throw a pro punch in the whole of 2019 and is itching to get back into the ring early in this calendar year.

The Pascal Collins trained fighter is keen to make up for lost time and wants big names over the next 12 months.

The ticket selling fight nomad hopes to have an early tune up fight before targeting the type of fights that will enable him to make a serious impression.

“I have big plans for 2020,” Moylette told Irish-boxing.com.

“It’s a blank page and I have my apprenticeship served. This will be my fourth year as a professional and it’s now time to leave my mark,” he adds before relaying how he would like the year to pan out.

“Maybe one tune up fight and then straight into the mix. I love this game and all that comes with it, but it’s time to enjoy the fruits of my labour and get the reward for all my hard work.”

Moylette ended 2018 with contrasting emotions swirling around his heart.

The Islandeady fighter suffered his first career defeat at the gloves of Christian Uruzquieta, who has since drawn with a Canadian prospect, but did so live on TG4 and at a sold out Royal Theatre in Castlebar.

The defeat, which came in an enthralling bout, left a sour taste, but Moylette was excited heading into 2019 with regard to what he could do with a TV profile and a solid home support.

However, it turned out to be a wasted year on the career progression front.

A split from Assassin Promotions tied the early months of the career before visa issues prevented him taking part in an intriguing summer clash with American based Monaghan man Larry Fryers.

“Two major issues happened one after another,” explains Moylette.

“I was in the gym from early January planning my come back and it took until mid April to change my management team. We arranged a fight in Boston mid July and I had issues with my working visa for the US. It took until the first week in December to get my Visa approved,” he added before explaining he didn’t want to take a routine bout during that visa issue period.

“We didn’t want to take just any aul fight for the sake of it. So we held out until all paper work was in order before we put our plan together. The simple things even took time, but thankfully that’s all behind us now. That’s the business side of professional boxing. I work on what happens inside the ropes and I let my team do the rest.”

Not being able to improve his record in the ring over 2019 didn’t mean Moylette wasn’t able to work on improving how he performs in it.

The European Championship gold medal winner spent as much time as possible in the gym working on all aspects of his game.

The 29-year-old does laments not building further, but feels the time in the gym will prove ‘priceless’.

“Looking back at 2019 I have mixed emotions. On one hand I feel it’s a year I missed out on big fights and a year I wasted not capitalising after the success of the TV show in Castlebar.

“On the other hand the year training and just focusing on my boxing has been priceless. There was 1 camp of 8 weeks where I was training for a particular opponent and for the rest of the year 46 weeks I was focusing on myself. That experience will be invaluable to me moving forward.

“The year 2019 was exactly how it was ment to be. I changed some of my team early in the year and I got all my paper work sorted just before Christmas. I fought plenty of battles outside the ring in 2019 that has cleared the path for me in 2020.”

dpg

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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