McCullough lays down challenge to Dunne
As Bernard Dunne prepares to make the second defence of his European super-bantamweight title, Wayne McCullough has thrown down the gauntlet to his fellow Irishman.
Las Vegas-based McCullough pulled out of tomorrow night’s show at the Point in Dublin last week due to confusion over a suitable opponent.
But the former World bantamweight champion, who has not boxed in two years, says his career is far from over and would love a showdown with Dunne, who defends against Norway’s Reidar Walstad tomorrow.
McCullough said: “Business is business and a fight between myself and Bernard would be huge. In Ireland it would attract a big crowd and American television would be very interested as well.
“I’m sorry that I had to pull out of the Dublin show but I couldn’t travel when I wasn’t sure of an opponent. But I am still in training and I’m looking to get a couple of wins and then I would be ready for a big fight.
“Bernard is a friend and I would shake hands with before and after but boxing is a business and it would be one of the biggest fights that Irish boxing has seen.”
European champion Dunne says that McCullough is not “on my radar at the moment” and is fully focused on retaining his belt when he faces Walstad, ranked three in Europe and with a record of 16 wins, one defeat and a draw.
That lone defeat came in 2004 when he was stopped after sustaining a bad cut over his left eye.
Referring to his quarter-final victory over the Irishman in the European Championships in 1997, Walstad said: “The fact that I have already beaten Bernard gives me great confidence that I will do it again.
“I know that we are both professionals now but for me Bernard still fights the same way as he did back then. I’ve watched a lot of his fights and I don’t see much difference.
“He still makes the same mistakes and I will take advantage of those.
“There is going to be another Viking invasion in June and I know the European title is coming back to Norway.
“This is the title I want, for me the European title is more important to me than winning a world title because there is only one European title but there are many versions of the world title.”
Champion Dunne dismisses the threat of Walstad denting his unbeaten record before another huge crowd in Dublin.
“I’m not taking him for granted but there’s no way I’m letting him take my title,” said Dunne, who must defend against Spain’s Kiko Martinez, the mandatory challenger should he come through against Walstad.
“I want to deal with this guy and then look ahead to Martinez who is the big threat on the European scene because he’s unbeaten and has a great knockout record.
“That’s going to be a huge fight for me. I just have to stay focused and do my thing and I know that whatever this guy has I’ll have an answer.”
