Mayo boxer Ray Moylette was a guest on Off The Couch this week, as we look to various athletes to keep us fit over the coming weeks and months.
Moylette is an Irish and European Amateur boxing champion, and certainly must be considered very lucky not to have made Nathan Murphy's Mayo Sporting Mount Rushmore at the start of this week.
'Sugar' Ray says he is finding new ways to get him that 'hit' that comes with the positive feelings from exercise.
"I am trying to get a run in every second day. I have a little personal home gym that I have all-year round... a rower, spin-bike, kettlebells, bar-bells and weights. So I'm able to stay in shape - in theory.
"We're all cooked up at home and no-one really knows what's going to happen... it's for the head mainly more than anything.
"You don't do this because you love getting hit in the face... professional boxing and boxing in general, you get a serious hit from talking about it, from actually physically putting yourself under that strain, from sparring with opponents and getting the better of them.
"It's a rush and a hit that you're constantly striving for - when you don't have it you're looking for a way to get it. Boxers don't realise how much they love it until it's taken away from them.
"It's been taken away from me for nearly a year and a half now since I haven't been able to fight. I've been able to find the extraordinary in the more ordinary things.
"So trying to get up to Dublin sparring, starting to love the gym, while before it was all about the fights. I just wanted to fight, and fight, and fight.
'That's the quickest boxing lesson you're ever going to get!'
Here's Ray Moylette with some boxing basics as part of today's #OffTheCouch
Watch the full video here Rightwards arrow https://t.co/HmVufT9JL4 pic.twitter.com/sYxldOx73k— Off The Ball (@offtheball) April 8, 2020
"I did nothing for a week - binged on Netflix, ate my body weight three times over, I wasn't sleeping right. It was very hard to enjoy anything there and then. I picked the toys out of the pram and started training every day. Ever since then I see the goodness in everything."
Ray says things were put into perspective for him when he came home from Boston after the coronavirus spread truly became global.
"Shit hit the fan really when I came home. No-one here, everyone gone, I was feeling sorry for myself. It took a week but then I quickly realised, when you see the amount of hurt out there in the world coming from this pandemic...
"...Families losing loved ones, they can't see them, they can't visit them, they can't bury them. Surely that puts a fight into context, so I can't be too selfish.
"Everything is put into perspective now, a fight is a fight at the end of the day and it's sport."
Ray has also had a lot of reaction on social media of late for posting a challenge (by coincidence on April Fool's Day) of him doing 1000 push-ups in an hour.
"If you do look back over my social media accounts there might be one serious post to five jokes or whatever. I can't believe how many people haven't questioned me on it, and I did do it, if you believe me or not!
"I don't think I got the respect when I launched it first - I think it took people to try it and do it and then say 'wow, that was a challenge'."
âš¡1000 push ups in 1 hourâš¡
*This is not April Fools*
😂😂
I never could have imagined how difficult this would be.
17 push ups every minute for 59 minutes.
Holy fuck! pic.twitter.com/Jkb3qcC53n— Ray Moylette (@raymoylette) April 1, 2020
Ray was also asked about Nathan Murphy's choice of four athletes for his Mayo Mount Rushmore - when he picked Cora Staunton, Liam McHale, Kevin Kilbane and Ciarán McDonald.
"Mayo is a great county of athletes, we have all sports here at the top level - and he picks four gaelic footballers and a soccer player!
"Cora [Staunton] and Liam McHale definitely to stay on. Ciarán McDonald is probably the biggest icon in Mayo GAA history... Kevin Kilbane is a very good friend of mine.
"He was a professional and doing it for a job... now, I'm not going to take him out because I don't want to be controversial. He's definitely deserving of it, but to my detriment, I'm not finished yet. Maybe when it's done I might be able to replace some of them!
"At the minute I'm going to leave it as it is, but I'm going to put a question mark on Kevin Kilbane, I'm coming for his spot but he's safe for now..."
