February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The rugged Scotsman had fended off McCullough’s challenge for the belt at the same Braehead Arena last March, but was thoroughly outclassed last Saturday by the vastly experienced Mexican, who won a record fifth championship at 126 pounds.
Medina scored a split points decision which many observers thought flattered Harrison, who failed to solve the challenger’s speed and high work rate.
“Cheryl called Frank Warren immediately after the fight and told him that we want Medina in Belfast in October. Warren said we’ll talk this week,” McCullough said, referring to his wife/manager, Cheryl, and their English promoter.
Warren also handles Harrison and has options on Medina.
“He [Warren] can make it. He has rights on Medina,” McCullough said.
The Las Vegas-based Ulsterman, who hasn’t fought since the loss to Harrison and is still peeved by British media accounts of the fight as a “beating” as well as calls on him to retire, said he was shocked at his nemesis’s loss to Medina.
“I’m shocked because Medina is a type of fighter that I’d take on right away; he has 13 losses on his record,” McCullough said.
McCullough was even more baffled by Harrison’s poor performance after his superhuman effort against him four months ago.
“The surprising thing is that in every fight I saw him in before we fought he was tiring after three to four rounds — but [against] me he got stronger as the rounds went,” McCullough said. “Against Medina, he tired early and at the end both of his eyes were almost shut,” he claimed, basing his facts on blow-by-blow accounts that he was receiving over the phone from Braehead.
Taking another dig at the media, he wondered why they hadn’t called on Harrison to retire following the “beating” inflicted by the 32-year-old Medina.
“It’s amazing how the press is backing him,” McCullough said. “He got beat up by an old man but they are not calling for his retirement.”
Asked if their taxing 12-round match last March could have contributed to Harrison’s defeat, McCullough said it could have been a factor.
“Although I took some shots, I still hit him with some cracking shots,” he pointed out.
He noted a pattern of poor performances by some big fighters after bouts with him and called it “The Irish curse.”
“When I fought [Prince Naseem] Hamed, he was never the same afterward,” he said, also mentioning Daniel Zaragoza and Erik Morales.
Although all three were victorious over him, they all lost subsequent fights.