THERE aren't many dollar millionaires on the Cairnmartin Estate near the Shankill Road area of Belfast. By the time tonight's World Boxing Council super bantamweight title fight is over (Sky Sports, start time 4 a.m), that matter will be put to rights. Win or lose, Wayne McCullough is set up for life and nobody could have worked harder or with more skill and determination than the little Belfastman.
McCullough, who challenges Daniel Zaragoza for the title, has won all his 20 fights. The last of those was more of a war than a fight when McCullough edged out Jose Luis Bueno from Mexico at The Point in Dublin.
His closest friends would scarcely have recognised him had they met him on the street on the way home so severely did Bueno punish him in a bruising bantamweight battle.
McCullough knew then that his reign as a bantamweight belt holder was over. His problems in making the weight had forced him to "waste" in order to beat the scales - and it showed.
He headed back for Las Vegas, his home for several years with his wife Cheryl, and set about repairing the damage to his body with a view to surrendering the bantam weight title and challenging for the super bantamweight belt.
Tonight, he faces a man who epitomises Mexican boxing. As tough as teak from a rain forest, Zaragoza has fought 63 times as a professional - more than three times McCullough's record - and has won 53 bouts, drawn three and lost seven.
Much emphasis here has been put on the fact that the Mexican is 39, which means that he was 13 when McCullough was born and was already showing the signs of a class boxer in the lower weights. Since then he has become a rich man.
Those riches have built up considerably within the last year when he took on two Japanese boxers on their home ground and beat both of them. On the first occasion in March he defended his title against Joichiro Tatsuyoshi for a purse believed to be little short of $1 million. He was made a 3 to 1 outsider by the Japanese betting fraternity and stopped his opponent in the 11th round.
The Japanese could scarcely believe it and the promoters came back with an even better offer to defend against Tsuyoshi Harada, a boxer with almost legendary stature. This time Zaragoza was a 4 to 1 bet and this time took even less time stopping his man in the seventh.
Like many a boxer before him he continues to forecast his own retirement and this time is no exception. Now he says he wants to retire undefeated and yesterday up to "end McCullough's Irish dream" tonight. "He is a good fighter. He won an Olympic silver medal. But he hasn't my toughness or experience. He may win my title some day but I won't be in the ring when that happens," he said through an interpreter.
His own dream was to be an international soccer player but with his father a professional boxer and two brothers also in the fight game, he was finally brought into boxing and represented Mexico in the Olympics in Moscow where he beat ones Phil Sutcliffe from Dublin but did not get in the medals.
If Zaragoza had his most spectacular success in Japan, so did McCullough. In July of 1995 he challenged the WBC bantamweight champion, Yasuei Yakushiji in Nagoya, his home city. It was regarded as a dangerous fight to take but worth the risk. Although McCullough was not expected to win, he put up a thrilling performance and came away with the title.
He has defended successfully since against Johnny Bredhall in Belfast and Bueno in Dublin and although that was a very tough bout, tonight's could be even tougher.
Apart from his age, Zaragoza is notorious for suffering cuts. There is a great deal of scar tissue around his eyes prompting one fight follower to suggest that he doesn't need a cuts man in the ring but rather a plastic surgeon.
McCullough's speed and fast punching approach will pose problems for Zaragoza but then the Mexican's strength and durability, as well as his vast experience, comprise the challenge which faces McCullough.
He was in a perky mood yesterday but refusing to make forecasts. "I'm here to win the title and take it back to Ireland. Forecasts are dangerous things. All I want to do is win," he says.
In that pursuit he has been given the blessing of the New England Patriots American football team which meets the Jackson ville Jaguars at Foxboro near here tomorrow. Yesterday, McCullough was presented with a Patriots jersey by the owner of the team, Robert Craft, who said he hoped McCullough would bring his team some of the "luck of the Irish."
There will be other Irish interest on tonight's bill when Peter McNeely will make a comeback with the prospect of a match for the Irish heavyweight title at staked between him and Kevin McBride. Twin brothers of Irish descent, Frankie and Derek Shea, are also on the card, RTE Radio One will broadcast a live commentary on the McCullough Zaragoza fight, which is expected to start at 4 a.m. Irish time (tomorrow). The commentator will be Jimmy Magee, assisted by Harry Mullan, former editor of Boxing News. The fight will be shown on Network Two at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon.
