Returning Marco McCullough: “I might have made a Big Mistake”

Marco McCullough [14(9)-3(2)] returns to the ring on Thursday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow with a lot of questions swirling around his head.

The Ulster featherweight feels he will not know, at least until the first few punches have been thrown, whether or not his return was a good decision.

The 26 year old faces a to-be-confirmed opponent on the dinner show in what will be his debut for MGM, and McCullough is hoping for a fresh start.

It has been nearly seven months since his knockout loss to Isaac Lowe for the Commonwealth featherweight title on the Frampton-Quigg undercard, and the third career defeat almost saw the Belfast man quit boxing.

The Shankill Road man spoke to Irish-Boxing.com and revealed that “after the Isaac Lowe defeat I was close to throwing the head up, I really started to doubt myself, and over the past year or so I stopped enjoying training.”

The last few months have seen a lot of change for McCullough, who has parted ways with legendary Belfast trainer John Breen and joined up with MGM. He admits that “leaving John Breen was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life – never mind boxing.”

“The man treated me like a son and I’ve a lot of respect for him, but it was time to try different things out to see if it works for me.”

“Who knows, I might have made a big mistake.”

The change of surroundings has seen McCullough regain his hunger for fighting and he described how “I have changed a lot about my training and now I’m starting to enjoy it again and I can see why I started boxing again. I have stripped myself right back to basics and started from scratch. ”

“As soon as I spoke with MGM I knew it was a great move. They plan to keep me active and get me straight back into title contention again.”

“I’m just glad to get in the ring again, and eager to see if if the change will be for the good.”