McCullough to retire

21 June 2008 – by Mark Doyle

Wayne McCullough has revealed that he plans to retire following his surprise stoppage defeat in the Cayman Islands on Friday night.

The former WBC bantamweight World Champion retired at the end of the sixth round in his bout with Juan Ruiz even though he was leading on two of the three judges scorecards at the time.

It was McCulloughs first outing since his second defeat by Oscar Larios in 2005 and he admitted afterwards that the time has probably come for him to hang up his gloves.

“I think this is my last fight and I want to thank you all for coming, the 37-year-old Northern Irishman told the crowd.

I’m disappointed with the way things went but I just felt I couldn’t go on.”

McCullough, who was known for his granite chin and incredible stamina, claimed the WBC belt with a win over Yasuei Yakushiji in Japan in 1995.

He later stepped up weight but failed to taste further world title glory, losing to class acts like Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales, Scott Harrison and Oscar Larios [twice].

After a period of inactivity after the second Larios bout, McCullough hoped to get his career back on track with a win over Kiko Martinez last December but that bout fell through in controversial circumstances.

McCullough then sought out a clash with current European Champion Rendall Munroe but this defeat ended all hopes of that and, ultimately, ended the Pocket Rocket’s illustrious career.