Boxing: Harrison proves a fight too far for McCullough

They sang the "Flower of Scotland" with even greater gusto than they did at Twickenham five hours before and this time the Scots got a result. Actually, it was the Power of Scotland, embedded in the fists of Scot Harrison, the little big man from Cambuslang, that lifted the hearts and voices of the 6,000 at the Braehead Arena as they roared him to a unanimous, comprehensive victory over gutsy but overwhelmed veteran Wayne McCullough in his first World Boxing Organisation featherweight title defence.

McCullough, former world bantamweight champion and making his third attempt to claim a featherweight crown, was given a systematic going over by the determined Harrison. Glasgow's cobbles have witnessed many worse scraps but few had the intensity of last night's dust-up.

Belfast's 32-year-old "pocket rocket" was skilfully defused by a gritty champion who is the first Scot to hold a featherweight crown in over a century. What's more, the fight ended with a Glasgow kiss – only this one was for real, planted on the cheeks of Harrison by the plucky loser.

All three judges plumped for Harrison with scores of 119-109, 119-108 and 120-108. Where McCullough was boxing on his past; Harrison, seven years younger, was fighting for his future.

At least McCullough maintained his dignity and a record which has never seen him stopped even in featherweight title challenges to Nassem Hamed and Erik Morales.

The ambitious Harrison is keen to take on either of this pair but it is more likely that he will make his second defence against a colourful American, Johnny Tapia, who was watching from ringside.

Harrison began purposefully working behind his jab as he likes to do taking the fight to McCullough and dominating centre ring, and by the third it had developed into the real war of attrition that the crowd had come to see.

Harrison, shorter in stature but somehow looking the bigger, remained the more composed, digging in deep to the body and displaying the greater variety of punches. Under this sort of sustained attack McCullough needed all his experience and resilience. As the one-way traffic continued, two crushing rights to the ear in the seventh probably deafened McCullough to the frantic encouragement of his supporters. Although he put up spirited resistance, by the eighth it was apparent that he needed a knock-out to win.

Two more savage rights to the head had him tottering back again and, though he fought back gamely, his left eye was beginning to close.

McCullough, so brave, finished the bout with his left ear as badly damaged as his eye but he showed all the survival instinct of an old pro to stay on his feet until the bitter end.

The result was purely a formality. Some had said this could have been one fight too soon for Harrison; in fact, it was one too far for McCullough.

Edinburgh's Alex Arthur underlined his promise by acquiring the vacant World Boxing Association international super-featherweight championship by stopping the experienced South African Patrick Malinga after 2min 3sec of the sixth round. It was an exacting test for Arthur, but he fought methodically and powerfully for his 15th successive victory.