By Elliot Foster
Josh Warrington will not fight Marco McCullough on his ring return.
The WBC International featherweight champion, who is a former British, Commonwealth and European titlist at the weight, had been set to face WBO Inter-Continental king McCullough next.
The fight, which was scheduled for May 13 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, exclusively live on BoxNation and BT Sport, was announced by Warrington’s new promoter Frank Warren last month, with further details set to be revealed in due course.
But McCullough, who is set to return on February 18 at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, has said that the fight was not made at the time of the announcement, although it was on the table.
The 27-year-old, who won the aforementioned fringe Boxing Organisation trinket with a stoppage over Luis Lugo at the Titanic Exhibition Centre last November, told Irish Boxing: “I was offered the fight and being a fighter I would fight anyone.
“I had a chat with the team and they thought it wasn’t the right fight to take at this time.
“To be honest, they thought, right now, with the bad habits I have, Josh Warrington would beat me.”
Boxing Scene received confirmation from the office of Warren on Thursday that an offer has been made for Warrington (24-0, 5 KOs) to face former IBF super-bantamweight world champion Kiko Martinez (36-7-1, 26 KOs) over 12 rounds for his fringe WBC belt on the card which will also feature the second professional outing of double Olympic champion Nicola Adams OBE, who makes her debut on April 8 at Manchester Arena.
Elsewhere on the bill, Jazza Dickens (22-2, 7 KOs) will make the second defence of his British super-bantamweight title against mandatory challenger Thomas Patrick Ward (19-0, 2 KOs).
The Liverpudlian, who has been out since last July after suffering a broken jaw in a retirement defeat to Guillermo Rigondeaux, when he challenged the talented Cuban for the Super WBA world title in Cardiff, won the belt against Josh Wale and defended it against Ward’s older brother Martin back in November 2015.
Meanwhile, Phil Sutcliffe Jr. is slated to face Josh Leather for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental super-lightweight title.
It will grant the winner a world ranking with the organisation whose current champion is Namibian Julius Indongo – who himself seeks to unify with WBA ruler Ricky Burns on April 15 at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow –– but the fight is dependent on Sutcliffe Jr. coming out of a warm-up fight on February 18 at the aforementioned Waterfront Hall in Belfast unscathed.
There will be action for British super-lightweight champion Tyrone Nurse over 10 rounds, just three weeks after he is slated to defend his Lonsdale belt against Joe Hughes on April 22 at Leicester Arena.
And Darren Tetley, Thomas Kindon, Zak Chelli and Kalam Leather will all box alongside Joe Maphosa, the former Team GB amateur standout, who will make his professional debut.
