Former WBC super bantamweight champion Wayne McCullough is eyeing a fight with former EBU super bantamweight champion, Bernard Dunne. In an interview with Irish-Boxing.com, McCullough referred to a possible meeting with Dunne's manager Brian Peters to discuss a match up between the two.
McCullough lost his last 3 fights, losing twice to WBC champion Oscar Larios and retiring on his stool against Juan Ruiz in June of last year in a NABF featherweight title fight. His last win was in 2004 when he TKO'd Mike Juarez.
A McCullough V Dunne bout would be a good step up for Dunne, and if it was fought at featherweight it would be an ideal stepping stone for Bernard before he steps up to a world title fight, which supposedly is the plan in 2009. Dunne has had 3 comprehensive wins since losing his EBU title against Kiko Martinez in August 2007, and looks to be back to his best. The combination of Dunne's youth, boxing ability, and the fact that he has little or no wear and tear (as opposed to McCullough who has been involved in a number of incredibly tough fights down the years with world class punchers like Naseem Hamed and Erik Morales), would surely make him the favourite to win this fight on points or to force a stoppage. Neither fighter possess devastating knock out power but Dunne looks to have a bit more of a dig to his punches than McCullough, so although McCullough is renowned for his superior chin, Dunne would most likely wear him down or out point him over the distance. Add to this the fact that Dunne would be the hungrier and possibly more determined of the two at this stage of their careers, and an upset win for McCullough seems less likely.
This fight would make financial and career sense from Dunne's point of view, but some might say that judging by his most recent performances, McCullough's heart and desire to get back in the ring may be his undoing.
Although the odds look to be stacked in Dunne's favour should this fight take place, this is boxing, and as everyone knows, you can never rule out a fighter, especially one such as Wayne McCullough.
Friday, January 16, 2009
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2 comments:
Not sure I would actually call this a step up for Dunne. Financially would make sense, but once Dunne beats him people would just argue that McCullough is way way past his best.
I take your point and I didn't mean to imply that McCullough is better than all of Dunne's previous opponents but you could argue that McCullough is better than some of Bernard's recent opposition.
He is a former World champion at superbantam and although Dunne has fought a former world champion before in Felix Machado, he was really a super flyweight. A comprehensive win for Dunne against McCullough at featherweight would be beneficial before he takes on a world title fight.
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