Moylette, Stewart in an absolute thriller
Moylette (left) and Stewart both have their hands raised
I WARNED it had the hallmarks of a war. “Sugar” Ray Moylette and Jamie Stewart did not disappoint at Cannock’s Excelsior Club last night (Thursday).
After patrons at the glitzy Premier Suite had dined on prime beef, the light-welters served-up a main event that will be hard to better in the Midlands this season.
It was six adrenaline packed, draining rounds of pure excitement. A bout best watched through a curtain of fingers. A bout that contained the ebbs and flows of fortune that make a classic.
Moylette, Ireland’s former world youth champion spurred on by some of the Emerald Isle’s most famous modern-day fighters, came within seconds of defeat – and there were those who felt he should’ve been stopped – to gain a share of the spoils.
When the mayhem was over, referee Ryan Churchill scored 57-57. Stoke’s Stewart, a former Midlands champ, felt very hard done by at the finish, telling me in the dressing room afterwards: “I definitely won that, without a doubt.”
I have to disagree. I felt the 33-year-old Irish boxer – a man who has faced such iron as Dalton Smith and Mexican Christian Uruzquieta in a 16 bout career (two losses) – nicked it by a single point.
There is, however, no doubt 30-year-old Stewart, sporting a patchy 4-3-3 record, emerged the moral winner. The Potteries boxer’s spindly appearance masks a very, very hard man.
He may look gangling, but brings true grit to the ring.
And there was an argument Jamie could’ve won the final session 10-8, even though Moylette didn’t hit the deck. That’s how dominant he was, that’s how close Sugar Ray came to being overwhelmed.
That would’ve made the contest a draw on my card.
After watching Stewart defy the odds, I pondered his defeat to Worcester red-hot prospect Owen Cooper who utterly dominated their Midlands welter title fight. Last night added extra shine to Cooper’s performance.
Moylette (10st), from Islandeady, nearly fell apart in the sixth, he lurched on a tightrope of disaster. Stewart detonated a looping left hook to the jaw that turned his legs to spaghetti. Jamie was all over him like the sauce.
Ray lurched, his legs betraying him, desperately fighting the mental fog that was descending, across the ring as Steward hurled punches.
Moylette (10st) was gone. He swayed like a drunk on black ice, but at the very point Mr Churchill seemed poised to step in, he found something. Ray – seconds from defeat – punched back and survived to the bell.
Up until then, the action had been nip-and-tuck. Ominously, Moylette could never subdue the man in front of him. When tagged, Stewart always hit back with raking, unorthodox punches to head and body.
It seemed Ray was settling into the bout in the second, pinning Stewart against the ropes and landing short hooks and classy uppercuts.
The Midlander responded with a couple of left hooks of his own in the third, but was repaid with two heavy rights and a right downstairs. For me, it was Moylette’s session.
Stewart re-grouped and reasserted himself in the fourth with body shots, while both had success with left hooks in the fifth.
Then came the sixth – for Moylette, lumpy around the left eye, a grim fight for survival. It wasn’t about winning, it was about staying on his feet.
Please, Scott Murray, stage a return. The West Midlands needs battles such as this.