Wayne McCullough

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Olympic medal record
Men’s Boxing
Silver	Barcelona 1992	Bantamweight

Statistics
Wayne McCullough
Image:Wayne McCullough.jpg
Real name	Wayne McCullough
Nickname	The Pocket Rocket
Weight	Featherweight
Nationality	Northern Irish/American
Birth date	July 7, 1970
Birth place	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Death date	-
Style	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	33
Wins	27
Wins by KO	18
Losses	6
Draws	0
No contests	0

Wayne McCullough, born July 7, 1970 in Belfast, Northern Ireland is a professional boxer who currently fights in the Featherweight division. During his professional career, which spans back to 1993, he has held the WBC world title in the Bantamweight category. He is from the Woodvale Road in the greater Shankill area of Belfast.

1 Biography
2 Amateur Career
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Biography

As an amateur, McCullough won a silver medal for Ireland at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, representing Northern Ireland.

The medal ceremony for his Commonwealth title was marked by an unusual incident. A technical problem with the public address system made it impossible to play the recording of the Northern Ireland anthem, Danny Boy. The New Zealand official in charge of the sound, Bob Gibson, promptly jumped into the ring, took the microphone and sang the anthem unaccompanied.

McCullough also won a Bronze medal at the World Cup before moving from Northern Ireland to Las Vegas to begin his professional career. Within a year, he had won the North American Boxing Federation title and on July 30, 1995, less than 2½ years since turning professional, he won the WBC World Championship by beating the champion Yasuei Yakushiji in Nagoya, Japan.

McCullough successfully defended his title twice before vacating the belt and moving up in weight to challenge the champion at a higher weight class.

McCullough unsuccessfully challenged champions Naseem Hamed in 1998, and Erik Morales in 1999. Breaking both of their KO streaks while taking them the distance, Morales stated that McCullough gave him one of the top three fights of his career.

In October 2000, McCullough was returning to his native Belfast for a homecoming fight. Two days before the fight was scheduled to take place, he was told that he had a cyst on his brain, he couldn’t fight again and that one more blow to the head could kill him.

McCullough flew back to Las Vegas and was advised by the Nevada Commission to visit the neurosurgery department at UCLA for a more thorough investigation. Within a few weeks the doctor at UCLA, Neil Martin, called to say he had consulted with some of the top neurosurgeons in the USA and they had come to the conclusion that the cyst was not on his brain, but in a space between the brain and the skull - called the arachnoid mater - and that he saw no reason for him to give up his boxing career.

Nethertheless, the British Boxing Board of Control continued to deny him a license. He was relicensed in Nevada and fought again in January 2002. After a very public battle, the BBBC could no longer deny him a license and later that same year McCullough stepped back into a British ring.

Since then he has had mixed success, winning five fights but losing to Scott Harrison and Mexican world champion Oscar Larios on two occasions. The result of his first fight with Larios is widely disputed.

McCullough has recently become a U.S. citizen. He is known for his dogged, relentless attacking style and has never been knocked down in a professional bout.

In November 2005, McCullough released his autobiography called "Pocket Rocket: Don't Quit" in the UK and Ireland. He went on a publicity tour to promote the book, which reached #2 on the best sellers list.

McCullough plans to return to the ring in 2006 and has plans to open up a gym and begin training fighters.

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[edit] Amateur Career

1988 represented Ireland as a Light Flyweight at Seoul Olympic Games. Results were:
- Defeated Fred Mutuweta (Uganda) points
- Lost to Scotty Olson (Canada) points
1990 Gold Medalist at Flyweight at Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand. Results were:
- Defeated B. Mwangata (Tanzania) points
- Defeated M. Maina (Kenya) points
- Defeated Tshabangu (Zimbabwe) points
1990 3rd place as a Flyweight at World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, losing to Serafim Todorov of Bulgaria on points
1991 competed as a Bantamweight at World Championships in Sydney, Australia. Results were:
- Defeated Felipe Costa (Portugal) TKO 2
- Defeated Joseph Zabakly (Austria) points
- Lost to Enrique Carrion (Cuba) points
1992 won the Silver medal representing Ireland as a Bantamweight at the Barcelona Olympic Games. Results were:
- Defeated Fred Mutuweta (Uganda) points
- Defeated Ahmed Abbood (Iraq) points
- Defeated Mohammed Sabo (Nigeria) points
- Defeated Gwang-Sik Li (North Korea) points
- Lost to Joel Casamayor (Cuba) points