A few days ago a columnist in Wayne McCullough's adopted hometown of Las Vegas described the Belfast boxer as "snakebit,", but the truth be known a snake is just about the only thing that hasn't bitten McCullough over the past year.

The former World Boxing Council bantamweight champion has not fought in 10 months since losing a hard-fought decision to Naseem Hamed in Atlantic City last Halloween, but McCullough has not been idle by choice.

McCullough, 22-2, received word this week that his oft-delayed challenge to WBC super-bantamweight champion Erik Morales of Mexico will take place on October 22nd. He plans to go ahead with plans for a warm-up bout against Mike Juarez, a Nebraska journeyman with a 21-8-1 record, at the Las Vegas chapter of the Hard Rock Cafe a week from Monday.

Assuming all goes well in that bout, McCullough-Morales would take place at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, the co-featured bout underneath Hamed's unification bout against WBC featherweight champion Cesar Soto.

Although history has shown that for McCullough there is no such thing as an "easy" fight, he is expected to get past Juarez without much difficulty. Meanwhile, McCullough says he would be happy just to get through the next two months without another bizarre mishap.

Earlier this year, McCullough incurred a hand injury when he was bitten by a spider. Later, a scheduled springtime challenge to Morales had to be scrapped when McCullough suffered a back injury. Then this summer he was sitting in a folding chair at an outdoor Las Vegas drive-in movie when a windstorm blew dust into his eye and scratched a cornea.

"I've had enough stuff like this to last a lifetime," said McCullough.