by James Slater: Former WBC bantamweight champion of the world Wayne “The Pocket Rocket” McCullough has not fought since back in 2005 and he has not won a fight since 2004. Despite this, the 37-year-old Irish warrior is not ready to hang up his gloves just yet. A scheduled fight with Kiko Martinez, in a bout that would have contested the European super-bantamweight the Spaniard then held, fell through due to Martinez failing to make weight. Then underdog Rendall Munroe upset Martinez to take the title. Now it seems a McCullough-Munroe fight may take place..
Speaking with Irish-Boxing.com recently, McCullough, 27-6(18) said he is keen to fight the current European champion.
“I texted Frank Maloney about fighting Munroe after the Martinez fight and he never came back to me,” McCullough told Irish-Boxing. “At that stage the fight was dead in the water.”
Wayne is still hopeful the fight will happen, however. Due to Munroe, 15-1(7) mentioning his name in the press, “The Pocket Rocket” is encouraged about the bout happening.
“I tried to get on the Ricky Hatton under card for this weekend but I was told there was no room on the card. Now, Munroe is calling me out in the press. I haven’t had any contact with them or heard anything about it but I’d be more than happy to fight him. I’ll fight him anywhere – be that in England, Ireland or the States. I’m ready, willing and able. I’ve been training away for the past few months. I’ve sparred twice a week for the past two weeks, so I’m sharp and ready to fight.”
So, despite his current age and the fact that he hasn’t been active as of late, McCullough is in no mood to quit yet. Known for his great chin, his toughness and his incredible work-rate, McCullough would have to be given at least a decent chance against the ten years younger, but still largely untested Munroe. Having been in with very good fighters such as Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales, Oscar Larios (twice) and the much bigger Scott Harrison, and having only been stopped once (via a forced retirement at the end of the 10th round in his second fight with Larios) it is unlikely the relatively light-punching southpaw would KO Wayne.
The fight would likely do good business, over in the U.K especially, considering how popular both fighters are. Wayne McCullough especially is recognised as one of Britain’s gutsiest ever fighters.