It appears that Wayne McCullough will get the fight he has always dreamed of, although the circumstances may not be ideal. Lou DiBella, the vice president of HBO Sports, confirmed yesterday that he is "98 per cent" certain of an October 31st Las Vegas fight between McCullough and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Dan Goossen, the Chief Operating Officer of America Presents, McCullough's promoter, who has been negotiating with Hamed's British promoter Frank Warren, voiced hope that the deal could be finalised "if not (today), then certainly by Monday".
McCullough has fought just once since his controversial loss to Daniel Zaragoza in a World Boxing Council super-bantamweight fight in Boston in January 1997. This May he was hard-pressed to win a split decision over the somewhat shopworn Colombian Juan Polo Perez, but had nonetheless retained his number one rating and was in position for a mandatory challenge to Zaragoza's Mexican successor, Erik Morales.
Although McCullough and his manager, wife Cheryl, have been asked not to comment until the contracts have been signed, it is understood that his purse for facing Hamed will be £600,000 - significantly more than he would have commanded for the Morales title fight.
Although Hamed-McCullough would obviously have drawn a massive live gate in either Britain or Ireland, Hamed's contract with HBO requires him to fight in the US this year, and the bout will likely end up at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which has not been used for boxing since Mike Tyson was disqualified for biting Mike Tyson's ears there in July of last year.
An October 31st Hamed fight against American Kennedy McKinney was already in the planning stages, but fell apart earlier this week when negotiations between Warren and Murad Muhammad, who promotes Roy Jones Jr as well as McKinney, broke down. Muhammad claims that Warren tried to strongarm him into agreeing to a threefight package which would have included a Jones-Steve Collins fight, as well as Warren's newly-signed featherweight Angel Vasquez against Derrick (Smoke) Gainer, as part of the deal.
"(Warren's former ally) Don King will stab you in the back," complained Muhammad, "but this guy (Warren) tries to chop you to pieces."
"I feel badly for McKinney, because he thought he had the fight," said DiBella, "but Wayne is a tough, tough fighter and it'll be an exciting television fight. You couldn't have a more exciting matchup for as long as it lasts."
Between a hand injury and the birth of his baby, Hamed has been idle even longer than McCullough. His last fight was on April 18th.
"It'll be the toughest challenge he ever had," said Goossen. If Wayne has shown one thing, it's that he gets up for the big ones, and they don't come much bigger than this. Hamed is not going to knock out McCullough, who has never been down as a pro or as an amateur. I think Wayne will just wear him down."
