February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
That defeat came at the hands of World Boxing Organization featherweight titlist Scott Harrison in Glasgow last March. McCullough, who’s 33, has been inactive since.
“I have no promoter, so you would think that it would be easy for me to get a fight, since there’s no promoter to go through,” McCullough said from his Las Vegas home last weekend.
There have been middling offers for purses in the $10,000 to $5,000 range that he’s rejected.
“It’s a joke — $10,000 for a main event,” he said. “That’s what I was making in 1993.
“It’s because I’m coming off a loss,” McCullough surmised. “But a lot of fighters come off worst losses and get offered more money. I came off a world championship fight.”
The one reasonable offer he’s received so far, an intriguing contest at featherweight with the colorful Johnny Tapia, an erstwhile former bantamweight king whose battles with drugs are as legendary as his ring exploits, recently fell through when the main event on their planned undercard bout collapsed.
“They offered me that fight on the [Jamal] McCline-[James] Toney card. I was given two weeks notice and said yes,” he disclosed.
However, Toney, who was coming off an upset win over Evander Holyfield last fall, was injured in training and so the show was canceled.
McCullough said promoter Lou DiBella was committed to making the Tapia match, even though Tapia is now scheduled to fight in New Mexico early next month.
With a ledger that reads 24-4 (17 KOs), McCullough even offered to fill the vacancy left by injured middleweight Jeff Lacy on the March 6 Showtime card from Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. The Ulsterman was willing to step in when Lacy, who was to face Tito Mendoza, had to pull out. There was no response from the promoters.
“Boxing is the type of sport where people remember your last fight,” he lamented. “People have a short memory. But even in my loss last year, I gave it 100 percent.”
McCullough, who trains constantly, vowed to surprise his doubters in his next fight.
“When I get back in the ring, people will see that I still have something left,” he promised.
A silver medallist at the Barcelona Olympics 11 years ago, McCullough was the World Boxing Council 122-pound titlist from 1995-97 when he stepped up to challenge for the super bantamweight crown.
GOLDEN GLOVERS
Limerick amateurs Don O’Regan and Jaime Power, both representing the Bronx-based Morris Park boxing club, continue their respective New York Daily News Golden Gloves quests next week.
O’Regan, back in the 77-year-old tournament after missing the 2003 event, is scheduled to fight in the second round of the 165-pound novice competition at the Brooklyn PAL, 127 Pennsylvania Ave., next Wednesday, Feb. 25.
Power, meanwhile, returns to action in the 178-pound novice class on Thursday, Feb. 26, at Glen Cove High School on Dosoris Lane in Glen Cove, Long Island. Both shows start at 8 p.m.
“I’m training very hard with some good pros,” the left-hooking Power confidently proclaimed last Sunday.
He’s also been running an average of 5 to 6 miles, two to three times a week, around Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
“I want to win these Golden Gloves,” the 24-year-old Power, an emphatic winner over Yonkers’ Hassahn Gordon in the first round two weeks ago, said.
Even though he pitched a shutout against Gordon, posting a 5-0 decision on the scorecards, Power said he feels there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“I need to work on a few things, like not throwing too many single punches, head movement and using my jab more,” he explained.
O’Regan, on the other hand, has been nursing a sore shoulder as he prepares for his second round bout, but he doesn’t think that it will be a factor come next Wednesday.
“The shoulder was dead the day after my last fight and I’ve been icing it. The doctor said it was a muscle spasm,” he said.
Fighting a quick opponent and rust, O’Regan outpointed Brooklyn’s William Rosinsky in the first round the same night that Power triumphed. He expects more tough fights as he attempts to better his quarterfinal performance in the Gloves two years.
O’Regan fought at 178 pounds then and says he feels more comfortable and stronger at 165 pounds.
“The main reason I came down in weight is because when I last fought at 178 I came in at 171 pounds, while [his conqueror Adam] Willet was probably 180, so I was giving away 9 pounds,” he said. “My natural weight is about 170 pounds, so I only have to come down [a few] pounds.”
O’Regan, who’s 28 and hadn’t had a competitive bout for 18 months before squaring off with Rosinsky, is now 5-1 as amateur, with four of those six bouts coming in the Gloves.
One of his five victories was for the Latin Gloves that he won at 165 pounds in July 2002.