A bout on the prestigious King of the Ring card for promising kickboxer Boston Moylan will go some way to making up for a controversial first-round loss at the IFMA World Youth Muaythai Championships in Turkey earlier this month.
Moylan will step into the big ring on Auckland’s North Shore for the free-to-air televised event on Saturday, December 2, following in the footsteps of his coach, Zane Hopman. The former IMFA heavyweight world champion fought in the King of the Ring for the first time in 2014 and is thrilled to secure his young charge a place on the card for New Zealand’s biggest fight night.
“I’m just bloody rapt to see him follow the pathway from junior through his amateur career so far and then competing overseas against the best amateur youth fighters in the world to his first pro-am fight,” Hopman said.
Moylan, 17, will come up against AJ Foster from The Combat Centre in Whenuapai, Auckland, in the 60kg weight class in a K1 kickboxing bout. Hopman said that the main difference between K1 and Muaythai, which Moylan has mainly contested, is that there is no clutching and no elbow strikes, and the two fighters will also fight without headgear.
The Wairarapa College student’s selection for King of the Ring comes after he returned from Turkey after the disappointment of a controversial loss to American Leo Marks in the first round of the 16–17 age group 60kg, a result that gutted Hopman.
“I was heartbroken because I was standing up thinking we’re in the money, and it looked pretty convincing to me, but without being one-eyed, knowing that we had to be very active and put a lot of forward pressure on and it seemed we should have got it.
“They had live scoring, and after every round, the scores came up on the screen, and we were just on the wrong side; we had a split decision each round, so it was two judges to one on each round, but I just couldn’t see it.
“I was devastated, and so was he, because he fought out of his skin – he really showed his maturity, and his experience came through in the fight.”
Hopman confirmed that he, as well as the New Zealand Muaythai Federation, had lodged formal complaints over the officiating and judging in fights involving Kiwi fighters, including one where a fighter was kneed in the groin, which went unpunished and his opponent persisted with illegal shots.
“We’re not the only team to voice their concerns and lodge complaints over the officiating. There was a lack of experience across the board, with officials not up to refereeing and judging a tournament of that calibre,” he said.
The King of the Ring fight will also be Moylan’s last under the guidance of Hopman, who has confirmed he is closing down The Fortitude Gym club at the end of the year, saying he’s reprioritising has life, and although it’s bittersweet, it’s time to do it.
Hopman said there are several options for Moylan, the winner of the Youth Sportsman of the Year at the 2022–23 Wairarapa Times-Age Sports Awards, which could involve linking with a club in Palmerston North, or he could base himself in Bali or Thailand for a 12-month stint with a brother club.
