Boxing: Wayne hands it to better half

Harrison remains favourite to retain his title against the hit and missus man

When Wayne McCullough challenges Scott Harrison for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) featherweight title at Glasgow's Braehead Arena on Saturday it has all the ingredients to be boxing's domestic dispute of the year, so it is curiously appropriate that one of the competitors should have been preparing for it by slapping the missus around.

Hastily, we should explain that it is all perfectly legal. McCullough regularly spars with his wife, Cheryl, who puts on the hand pads in the ring and encourages hubby to biff away at them. She reckons she enjoys it, and insists: "There's no damage done. No one gets hurt. It is all about technique, helping Wayne to measure his punches.''

The formidable Cheryl has been part of McCullough's training entourage for some time, much to the scepticism of Harrison's manager, Frank Maloney, one of the fight game's traditionalists. "Sparring with the wife? All it goes to show is that McCullough can't punch,'' he scoffs. "Otherwise she'd end up with both arms broken.''

Harrison himself has also found an unorthodox way of sharpening up for possibly the best all-British epic since the likes of Benn and Eubank went to war. At his Tenerife training camp he has been working out with Thai kick-boxers, to tighten his defence.

With the humdrum heavyweight division now occupied by a fistful of gloved geriatrics, it is refreshing to see the likes of the 25-year-old Harrison hungry for recognition after winning his title with an impressive defeat of the accomplished Argentinian Juan Pablo Chacon last year. That was his 20th bout, of which he has lost only one, early in his career on a cut eye.

Strangely for a fighter, he has an out-of-the-ring passion for art – he is a dedicated follower of Dali – but recently has been concentrating on his powerhouse right rather than his paintbrush left.

McCullough has lost three fights in 29, all of them in unsuccessful challenges for world titles. His conquerors have all been top men, Daniel Zaragoza, Naseem Hamed and Erik Morales, and he has never been stopped. A former world bantamweight champion, the Irishman has not had the easiest of times, having to fight the British Boxing Board of Control to restore his licence after a scan revealed a cyst on his brain. Amid some controversy, the board finally accepted neurological reports that the condition was not dangerous, though their decision led to the resignation of two of their senior medical officers.

McCullough, for his part, is delighted to have been given another opportunity to regain a world title. "I pray every day and give thanks for the fact that I have another chance. Boxing means so much to me. God first, then my family and then boxing.'' Although the promoter, Frank Warren, who promises the winner the dubious pleasure of a match with either Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera by the end of the year, says Saturday's pairing is tasty enough to have sold out without the usual hate-filled hype, there is little doubt that mutual respect is a scarce commodity as far as both are concerned.

Uncharacteristically, the 32-year-old McCullough has been hurling some venomous verbal punches in Harrison's direction, but the Scot shrugs: "I don't think he fancies the fight as much as he says. He's been backed into a corner.''

Harrison is schooled by his father, Peter, voted in 2002 as Britain's trainer of the year. "You won't find a fitter or more dedicated featherweight in the world,'' says Harrison senior. "He has a unique body. He's like a small Incredible Hulk. You see him before the weigh-in and the day after there's an extra two inches on his chest. You'd have to nail him to the floor to beat him.''

The suspicion is that, for all his technical skills, McCullough does not have the finishing punch to do that in what is certain to be a bruising encounter, and one unlikely to be as brief as the heavyweight affairs witnessed of late in Hanover and Memphis.

Harrison's superior strength and Braveheart-mould resolution should see him through to a points victory. But he had better do it by the hook, and the book – otherwise he will have Cheryl to answer to.