February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“Everyone knows that it’s been [reported] and Wayne is ready to go,” McCullough’s wife and manager, Cheryl, said in Las Vegas last week. “But we’d like notice. As soon as we get a call or contract, we’ll say yes or no.”
Chances are that the “Pocket Rocket,” who just last August was offering to fight for free, won’t pass up the opportunity of a title shot against a fighter he feels he can beat.
“This is the perfect fight for me at this stage of my career,” the 34-year-old McCullough told the Belfast Telegraph last week. “I’ve seen Larios close up. I saw him in his last fight and for a super bantamweight he is strong but not as quick as I expected.”
McCullough believes that the fight is 90 percent a done deal and hopes that everything will be tied up in the next couple of weeks.
He’s in training but not sparring, Cheryl said. He’ll shift camp shortly to new trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles for the latter.
The Ulsterman’s last bout was a second-round KO of journeyman Mike Juarez last September — McCullough’s first fight since losing to WBO featherweight title holder Scott Harrison in Glasgow 18 months earlier.
In all, McCullough, who has a 27-4 (18 KOs) ledger, has made five world title bids since turning pro after the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona where he won a silver medal. He snatched the WBC 118-pound belt from Yasuei Yakushiji in Nagoya, Japan, in July 1995, and made two successful defenses before moving up to 122-pound.
However, McCullough was unsuccessful in two world championship attempts at that weight, losing to Mexican Daniel Zaragoza (January 1997) and Erik Morales (October 1999), in between a defeat to Nassem Hamed (October 1998) in his first quest for the WBO featherweight diadem then held by the flashy Englishman.
Should the Larios fight come off, McCullough will face a 28 year-old seasoned prizefighter with a 54-3-1 (35 KOs) record. The Mexican, who at 5-foot-8 will be an inch taller than the “Pocket Rocket,” has been super bantamweight champion since dispatching former holder Willie Jorrin in one round in November 2002.
That victory avenged Larios’s earlier loss on points to Jorrin two years earlier. Larios also holds a win over John Lowey. He outpointed the now retired Belfast pug over 10 rounds in Albuquerque, N.M., on St. Patrick’s Day 2001.
DUDDY FOE
Chris Troupe, a 7-2 (3 KOs) middleweight from Atlanta will be John Duddy’s opponent in the Derry fighter’s eight-round debut at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, N.Y., on Feb. 4.
“He’s not bad; we expect to go a few rounds,” Duddy co-manager Eddie McLoughlin said last week, referring to Troupe. “He’s never been stopped and is very durable.”
McLoughlin was at ringside at Philadelphia’s Blue Horizon a year ago when Troupe, who’s 24, suffered his first defeat, a unanimous points decision to one Elvin Ayala that the Irishman thought Troupe won.
McLoughlin said the Atlanta native was a step up in opposition for the undefeated Duddy, who’s won all seven of his pro fights by knockout.
“We’ve got to keep raising the bar,” McLoughlin said. “But I don’t think he’ll stand John’s power.”
Duddy vs. Troupe will be the main event on the Northeast Promotions card.