Hand injury costs Moylette dearly

Hand injury costs Moylette


Olympic Games dream dashed for Mayo boxer

David Jennings

A SHOCK defeat to Crumlin’s Martin Wall added the worst possible insult to Ray Moylette’s hand injury as the European light-welterweight champion saw his Olympic Game dreams dashed at the Elite National Championship quarter-finals in Dublin on Saturday night.
Speaking to The Mayo News last night, the St Anne’s, Westport boxer, who underwent surgery to repair severe damage to ligaments in his wrist last November,  admitted that he was ‘devastated’ after last weekend’s defeat.
He also explained that he will have to go under the knife once again in the coming weeks.
“In the lead-up to the fight I told everyone that the operation was a success and everything was going well, but the truth was that it wasn’t. If anything, the operation had the opposite effect,” conceded the Islandeady native.
“My hand was all tender afterwards and it certainly didn’t fix the problem. I even had to get an injection on Monday of last week to try and ease the pain so I could fight.
“My right hook is usually my scoring shot but every time I tried to use it I got a sharp pain so it didn’t have the same impact that it should have.”
Never one to go searching for excuses, the 22 years-old didn’t want to put the 15-11 defeat completely down to the injury, and was keen to stress that he just wasn’t good enough on the night.
“I don’t want to use my hand as an excuse for losing. I felt confident going into the fight and I thought I had enough work done to get through but it just wasn’t to be and that’s the way it goes.
“I’m devastated. I will never get a better chance to get to an Olympics and knowing that my Olympic dream is over is hard to take. The injury just came at the wrong time.”
“The plan now is to try and have another operation. At the minute, the surgeons can’t seem to get to the root of the problem so it’s a case of trial and error.”