McCullagh suggests Donovan missed his Golden opportunity – White Chocolate not sweet on match up

Tyrone McCullagh [14(6)-1(0)] claims he and Eric Donovan [12(7)-0] could been Golden Contract rivals, but doesn’t see it happening now.

The Derry southpaw was one of a number of names the Kildare fighter said he was willing to face when speaking to Irish-boxing.com last week.

The five time Natioanl Elite champion admirably put his name forward to fight any of Ireland’s feather or super featherweights.

‘White Chocolate’ was for some reason a name the fans latched onto with many on social media pointing out the match up would be ideal.

The boxing nurse says he isn’t one to say no to a scrap, but suggests after suffering defeat in the Golden Contract semi final he was planning a ‘warm up’ – not to mention he plans to move back to super bantamweight.

“Look I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to fight anyone,” he tells Irish-boxing.com.

“I think I proved that by jumping up a weight entering the Golden Contract with some of the best featherweights out there. But interest wise I personally don’t have much at the minute. I took that risk I entered the Golden Contract, some will say it didn’t pay off or I got found out, but me personally, as gutted as I am not to be in the final I think it was a great move.

“I got great exposure and great experience,” he adds before suggesting Donovan could have been a contestant in the unique tournament.

“I believe Eric was offered the chance to be in it as well, but he turned it down. I hear he had his reasons so that’s not a put down but for me now after everything that’s going on I’ll definitely be looking at a warm up fight first.

“I probably would of wanted a warm up regardless of covid after having my first defeat anyways. Contractually I think I might be due another fight in the Golden Contract. I am not 100 percent on that, but he may the case. Then another thing is I’m looking at moving back to 122 as well. At the minute I want too but I’ll speak to Jamie[Conlan] and Pete [Taylor] first.”

The pair are well acquainted from their amateur days. McCullagh reveals the sparred more than most High Performance pairings.

“Yea we’ve sparred many times being on the Irish team. Zaur Antia use to love putting me and Eric sparring together for whatever reason,” he continues before backing himself to win a fight he ‘hasn’t much interest in’

“I’ve got to back myself, don’t I ?”

The European Championship bronze medalist also reveals he didn’t take any offence to being name dropped.

“I wouldn’t really call it a call-out specifically! It was a bit of a long list but I took no grievances with it. I know Eric needs these fights sooner rather than later.”