seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Featherweight


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Birth of Wayne McCullough, Northern Irish Professional Boxer

Wayne William McCullough, former professional boxer, is born on July 7, 1970, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

McCullough grows up in the Shankill Road area of Belfast, a community impacted by the Troubles. He begins boxing as a teenager and quickly achieves prominence in the amateur circuit. He carries the Irish flag at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, at the age of 18 and earns a silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, in the bantamweight division. Representing Northern Ireland, he also wins a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, and a bronze at the 1990 World Cup in Mumbai, India. Throughout his amateur career, he achieves 319 wins with 11 losses, with over 100 knockouts.

McCullough turns professional in 1993, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, to train under legendary coach Eddie Futch. Less than 2½ years after his debut, he captures the WBC bantamweight title on July 30, 1995, by defeating Yasuei Yakushiji in Japan, becoming the first Irish or UK boxer to win a world title there. He successfully defends the WBC belt twice before moving up in weight. He challenges for championships in super bantamweight and featherweight, including notable bouts against Daniel Zaragoza, Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales, and Oscar Larios. He is renowned for his relentless attacking style and exceptional durability, never being knocked down in his professional career.

McCullough’s career record consists of 34 professional bouts with 27 wins (18 by knockout) and 7 losses. He retires after a bout against Juan Ruiz in June 2008 due to injury, ending a career spanning 15 years.

McCullough marries Cheryl Rennie in 1993, and they have a daughter, Wynona, pursuing a career in entertainment. During his career, he faces mental health challenges, including depression and suicidal thoughts, which he overcomes with the support of his family and faith. He becomes a United States citizen in 2005.

After retiring, McCullough becomes a trainer for amateur and professional fighters and works to promote goodwill in sports as WBC World Ambassador for Peace. He is also involved in mixed martial arts public relations and founds his charity initiative, IHOW. He publishes his autobiography, Pocket Rocket: Don’t Quit, in 2005. In 2019, he is inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport.

McCullough’s courage, low knockdown susceptibility, and international successes have cemented him as a revered figure in boxing, both in Ireland and globally. His story is one of triumph, resilience, and overcoming personal and professional adversity.


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Barry McGuigan Wins the World Featherweight Boxing Title

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Finbar Patrick McGuigan, known as Barry McGuigan and nicknamed The Clones Cyclone, wins the World Boxing Association featherweight title on June 8, 1985, defeating Eusebio Pedroza in a unanimous 15-round decision at Loftus Road soccer stadium in London.

Barry McGuigan, the son of singer Pat McGuigan, is born in Clones, County Monaghan. He represents Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games at Edmonton in 1978 and represents Ireland at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

After a successful juvenile boxing career, McGuigan begins his professional boxing career on May 10, 1981, beating Selwyn Bell by knockout in two rounds in Dublin. He wins four out of five additional bouts in 1981. In 1982, McGuigan wins eight fights, seven by knockout, although one of these almost destroys his career and his life. Opposed by Young Ali, on June 14, 1982, McGuigan wins by a knockout in six rounds. Ali falls into a coma and dies five months later.

In 1985, McGuigan meets former world featherweight champion Juan Laporte and wins a 10-round decision. Following one more win, he finally gets his world title attempt when the long reigning WBA featherweight champion, Eusebio Pedroza of Panama, comes to London to put his title on the line at Loftus Road soccer stadium. McGuigan becomes the champion by dropping Pedroza in the seventh round and winning a unanimous fifteen-round decision in a fight refereed by hall of fame referee Stanley Christodoulou. McGuigan and his wife are feted in a public reception through the streets of Belfast that attracts several hundred thousand spectators. Later that year, he is named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, becoming the first person not born in the United Kingdom to win the award.

McGuigan twice successfully defends his title, first against American Bernard Taylor, who is stopped in nine  rounds, and then against Dominican Danilo Cabrera in a controversial knock out in fourteen rounds. The fight is stopped after Cabrera bends over to pick up his mouthpiece after losing it, a practice that is allowed in many countries but not in Ireland. Cabrera is not aware of this, and the fight is stopped.

McGuigan’s next defence takes place in Las Vegas in June 1986, where he faces the relatively unknown Steve Cruz of Texas, in a gruelling 15-round title bout under a blazing sun. McGuigan holds a lead halfway through, but suffers dehydration due to the extreme heat and wilts near the end, being dropped in the tenth and fifteenth rounds. He eventually loses the world title, which he never reclaims, in a close decision. After the fight McGuigan requires hospitalisation because of his dehydrated state.

McGuigan retires after the fight but returns to the ring between 1988 and 1989, beating former world title challengers Nicky Perez and Francisco Tomas da Cruz, as well as contender Julio César Miranda, before losing to former EBU featherweight champ and future WBC and WBA super featherweight challenger Jim McDonnell by a technical knockout. After the McDonnell fight he permanently retires from boxing. His record is 32 wins and 3 losses, with 28 knockouts. In January 2005, McGuigan is elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

McGuigan founds and is the current President of the Professional Boxing Association (PBA). He is also the CEO and founder of Cyclone Promotions.