February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Blood running down the side of face from a clash of heads in the opening stanza, the “Pocket Rocket” tore into Juarez late in the second round, pounding him with shots to the body and head.
A right hand to the head made the journeyman from Omaha groan, but the next punch, a short left hook that landed flush on the chin knocked him out cold. Juarez was on the canvas for more than a minute before stirring.
The knockout, McCullough’s 18th on his now 27-4 ledger, came at 2:59 minutes of the second stanza in the scheduled 10-rounder. Juarez fell to 23-15-2 after his sixth straight loss.
“I did what I had to do and I’m not finished,” McCullough, who began another quest for a world title shot, staid. “The good thing is that I’m back and I’m back with a knockout.”
Brief as the contest was, the Ulsterman showed no ill effects from his brutal fight with Scott Harrison for the WBO belt 18 months ago, nor any signs of physical decline at age 34.
McCullough fought with the same intensity that long earned him the nickname “Pocket Rocket,” and in the respected Freddie Roach, had a world-class trainer in his corner for the first time since his former mentor, the late Eddie Futch, retired.
It was Roach who calmed McCullough’s rage after an inadvertent head butt opened a cut near his left eye in the first minute of the bout as Juarez came out swinging.
“I was upset,” the fighter said. “I didn’t want to lose on cuts. I was like a mad man and [tore] into him. I nearly stopped him before the end of the round with hard shots to the body and head.”
But in his corner after the round, McCullough was calmly told by Roach to relax and work behind the jab.
The former World Boxing Council bantamweight champ followed the trainer’s advice and was able to set up the knockout.
“And they say I can’t punch,” he said, smirking.
Other than the head butt, Juarez never really bothered McCullough, who was convinced the Mexican American had studied videotapes of his points loss to Harrison.
“He must have watched the Harrison fight because he was throwing wild right hands,” McCullough said. “He hit me a few shots, but he didn’t hit me clean.” Promoter Dan Goossen, who added McCullough to his stables last July, was happy with the fighter’s performance, describing it as “sensational.”
McCullough needed five stitches to close the cut above the eye and plans a December return to the ring. He said he wouldn’t rush for a title fight, although his late summer 2005 deadline to challenge one of the 126-pound titlists remains.