Wayne McCullough

Wayne McCullough
McCullough (centre) in 2008
Statistics
Real name	Wayne Pocket Rocket McCullough
Nickname(s)	Pocket Rocket
Rated at	Bantamweight Super-bantamweight Featherweight
Height	5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
Reach	66 in (168 cm)
Born	Wayne William McCullough (1970-07-07) 7 July 1970 (age 46) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	34
Wins	27
Wins by KO	18
Losses	7
Medal record Men's amateur boxing Olympic Games Representing  Ireland 1992 Barcelona Bantamweight Commonwealth Games Representing  Northern Ireland 1990 Auckland Flyweight

Wayne Pocket Rocket McCullough (born Wayne William McCullough; 7 July 1970) is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held the WBC bantamweight title from 1995 to 1996, and challenged six times for world titles at super-bantamweight and featherweight. As an amateur, McCullough represented Ireland at the 1992 Summer Olympics, winning a bantamweight silver medal. He also won gold at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in the flyweight division, Representing Northern Ireland.

In addition to McCullough's dogged, relentless attacking style, he was renowned for his iron chin, having fought two of boxing's biggest punchers in Naseem Hamed and Érik Morales, and going the full distance with both of them. During his bout with Morales in 1999, HBO commentator Larry Merchant joked, "If you look in the dictionary, under 'Tough Irishman', you'll find a picture of Wayne McCullough". McCullough was never once knocked down in his professional career. He also stopped the late Arturo Gatti as an amateur.

McCullough had a very successful amateur career, amassing a record of 319 wins and 11 defeats, with over 100 wins coming by way of knockout. As an amateur living in the staunchly loyalist Shankill Road area of Belfast, McCullough was selected by the island-wide Irish Amateur Boxing Association to participate in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, and was asked to carry the Irish flag because he was the youngest member of the team at 18 years old. He went on to win a silver medal for Ireland at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Representing Northern Ireland at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, he won a gold medal and carried the Northern Ireland flag in the closing ceremony. The medal ceremony for his Commonwealth title was marked by an unusual incident. A technical problem with the public address system made it impossible to play the recording of the song "Danny Boy", used instead of an anthem for medalists from Northern Ireland. The New Zealand official in charge of the sound, Bob Gibson, promptly took the microphone and sang the song unaccompanied. In 1990, McCullough also won Bronze for Ireland at the Boxing World Cup in Mumbai, India.