McCullough believes Alex Arthur can be a multi world champion

Wayne McCullough will be back in Alex Arthur's corner as the Scot makes the first defence of his WBO super-featherweight title against Nicky Cook at the MEN Arena, Manchester, on Saturday. The former WBC bantamweight champion has been in Arthur's corner on and off for the past three years, but McCullough's ongoing career in the ring and commitments to the UFC meant the pair could never make the relationship permanent. But now things seem to have changed. "I'll be with Alex until he is a three-time world champion," McCullough said yesterday.

Indeed, McCullough believes that Arthur could be well served by a move up to lightweight. Arthur is big for the weight and, while he says he is making the weight well, there could be lucrative matches to be made. "I think he can make super-featherweight, but lightweight is a hot division," McCullough said. "If he can give it 100 per cent, he can mix with the Casamayors and the Campbells and the Guzmans in the lightweight division. Katsidis, Marquez are there too."

In the meantime, he feels Arthur must not take Cook lightly. "It is much harder to keep hold of a world title than to win one," he said. "The guy who told me that was my old trainer Eddie Futch. He said when you become world champion there are a lot of hungry wolves trying to get your belt.

"When he's around me he can't take it lightly - I push him, push him and push him. I don't teach my guys to fight like Wayne McCullough, I teach them different styles. Eddie's methods amazed me when I first went to America and I try to pass them on."

McCullough ad Arthur knew each other long before they teamed up. "We've been friends since he was an amateur," McCullough said. "I didn't want to be Alex's trainer because of our friendship. He knows I can't come over for two months at a time. So he comes over to Las Vegas for some of the time and I come over here.

"Even Tiger Woods has a coach. I've known some world champions in Las Vegas who think they don't need trainers after they've won the world title, they think they know everything. Eddie Futch said you keep learning until the day you die. Alex listens and he does what he is told."

Comments

[Crashing Dashing Kid]

I have been to watch Alex fight several times and, no Wayne, he won't.

[David Payne]

The irony of the statement "its much harder to keep a world-title than to win one" is so, so lamentable.

Arthur has never beaten a world-class, top-10 contender.

Struggled manfully with domestic level Stephen Foster and in his next outing tackles a guy with no-discernible track record at the weight.

To be a world-champion you need to beat one, or at the every least - when given a vacated belt - a long line of credible contenders.

Wayne McCullough would probably, even at the venerable age of 38, be able to give Arthur and Cook a tough nights work.

Arthur must, must fight a legitimate champion or top 5 fighter next or risk being the possessor of the weakest championship run in recent history.