Sport

McCullough good to go after hand problem

MARC McCullough will be fit for The World is Not Enough at the Odyssey Arena but his stablemate Jamie Conlan will miss the bill.

Conlan is ruled out after being laid low with illness, but McCullough has recovered from a hand problem to face Romanian Oszkar Fiko on the undercard of the Carl Frampton-Chris Avalos IBF super-bantamweight blockbuster.

McCullough has been out of action since October after a hand operation but has been receiving treatment from expert Michael Eames and has now been passed fit to box.

However, due to a lack of proper preparation time, he will be fighting further down the bill at the Odyssey than might otherwise have been the case.

"I've had a short training camp, I'm not one of the main fighters on the bill," said McCullough.

"I was hoping to be chief support again, but it was too much of a rush. I've only got back into it, I've only been training for the last three weeks after the operation.

"I've been back and forward to the hospital but the doctor told me to fight on. Hopefully I'll have no problems with this fight and then I'll go and get another scan and see how it was in the fight.

"It's a concern that it hasn't cleared up but the doctor said stimulation could help heal another couple of per cent so I've been punching away in sparring."

Shankill Road featherweight McCullough (11-1) is the Irish and WBO European champion and he is confident he can soon put his injury problems behind him.

"Barry McGuigan put me in touch with Michael Eames and he said that if it's not 100 per cent after the fight he can get it fixed for me," he said.

"They [Cyclone Promotions] offered me a few opponents a couple of weeks ago but I wasn't even punching to take them so I had to turn them down.

"I would have been chief support on the bill but I wouldn't have been ready, I'm well behind in training camp for a 10-12 round fight. I'm happy enough to get out again and fight and run the ring-rust off."

CWM Cyclone Promotions have confirmed that Anthony Cacace will box Spain's Santiago Bustos over eight rounds in an international

super-featherweight contest on the February 28 bill.

Middleweight prospect Conrad Cummings faces the toughest test of his career when he takes on fellow unbeaten prospect Roberto Palenzuela (3-0-1) of Spain in a six-round contest.

Cacace's 11th outing will be screened live on ITV4 as part of the build-up to the main event, which goes out prime-time on ITV1, signalling a returning of big-time boxing to the channel after an absence of five years.

The undefeated 'Apache' (10-0) takes a step up in class against capable Mallorcan Bustos, whose record includes a win over former WBO European and English champion Ben Jones over 10 enthralling rounds last November.

Coalisland middleweight Cummings (5-0) is up against unbeaten Palenzuela.

The card also includes Manchester's Denton Vassell facing off against Viktor Plotnikov for the vacant IBF Intercontinental welterweight title and the return of Commonwealth Games gold medallist Paddy Gallagher in a four-round welterweight bout.

The World Is Not Enough, Frampton v Avalos, sponsored by CWM FX, will be screened live and exclusively on ITV. McCullough v Fiko, Cacace v Bustos, Cummings v Palenzuela plus the rest of an action-packed undercard plus the full build-up to Frampton v Avalos will be live on ITV4.

Tickets are on sale now at www. ticketmaster.ie or 0844 277 4455 and the Odyssey Arena Box Office (028 9073 9074).

For VIP and ringside tickets please call 0845 900 3765.