McCullough may resume his career

Wayne McCullough's future should become clearer within the next 48 hours following talks between the boxer and his promoter Mat Tinley. It was confirmed yesterday that Tinley would be making a major statement today or early tomorrow after the two had talked at length within the last few days.

McCullough and Tinley appeared to be on a collision course within the past few weeks which could have ended McCullough's career after he pulled out of a warm-up fight against Lupe Rangel which was scheduled for January 10th. That bout was planned to be the preliminary to a challenge for the WBC super-bantamweight title, held by Erik Morales, later this month.

McCullough revealed that he was unhappy with the terms of the contract which he had signed with Tinley last May and announced that he wanted it to be renegotiated. In the meantime, his wife Cheryl had taken over as his manager.

Tinley made it known that he was going to hold McCullough to the terms of the May contract and that he would oppose any attempt by McCullough to fight other than under the terms of that contract.

It is now more than a year since McCullough lost his WBC title to Daniel Zaragosa. That was a somewhat controversial split decision and McCullough found himself in trouble when he claimed that he had won and suggested that there was some wrong-doing on the part of the WBC.

After that was sorted out by way of a warning from the WBC, several fights were arranged for McCullough in the latter part of last year but he pulled out of all of them for a variety of reasons. However, it wasn't until after the most recent fiasco in regard to the Rangel fight earlier this month that McCullough revealed that he was unhappy with the contract which he signed last May.

It now appears that the two have reached an agreement which will allow McCullough to box again. Insofar as his career is concerned, that should be sooner rather than later although there is a suggestion that he will be allowed to fight for promoters other than Tinley - which might pave the way for a return to Ireland to appear under the banner of someone such as Frank Warren or Barney Eastwood.