Moylette survives scare to progress at World Championships

Mayo light welterweight Ray Moylette survived a stinging right-hander from his Greek opponent to win a split decision in his opening bout at the AIBA World Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Moylette moves into the last 32 but he admitted afterwards that his championship could have been done and dusted after Alexandros Tsanikidis caught him to take the opening round from all three judges.

“He hit me one big shot at the start. Billy (Walsh, Irish coach) said ‘watch his right hand, it’s all he has’ and it nearly ended the whole championships in one go, but I came back from it and showed now that I can take a punch and that I can go forward as well,” said Moylette, who progressed despite losing all three rounds on one the judge’s cards.

“Look, it’s not one of the prettiest of wins, but a win is a win at the end of the day and we’ve something to build on.

“My honest opinion is that it wasn’t a great performance from me, but I was in there to get a job done and not everything is going to go your way. That’s the biggest stage in boxing.

“I was a bit sleepy in the first round, in the second round I just had to up it. I wasn’t as cool as I should be and I just went into war a bit as well.”

Belfast lightweight Seán McComb made it three from three for Irish boxers to date with a convincing victory over Israel’s Almog Briga, taking the bout on an unanimous decision after flooring his opponent in the opening round.

“I’m glad enough to get the first fight out of the road and give me a bit of a lift in confidence,” said the Holy Trinity BC fighter. “I thought it was going to be a little harder with no headgear on but I managed it well .”

McComb will now face Gildas Bangana of the Central Africa Republic next Sunday.