A BITTER and disillusioned Wayne McCullough made no secret of his disgust at the decision of the judges who on Saturday night here decided that he had not done enough to wrest the WBC super bantamweight title from Daniel Zaragoza.

McCullough even went so far, in an aside to Irish boxing writers, to say that he might not fight again.

After a profoundly courageous attempt to take the title away from the vastly experienced, 39 year old Mexican, Mccullough managed to convince only one of the three ringside judges that he had done enough to win. Judge Barbara Perez gave McCullough a one point advantage over Zaragoza, scoring the fight 115 to 114, but the other two, Chuck Hassett and Rick Flaherty, both scored the bout 116 to 112 for Zaragoza.

There was disagreement too among the boxing writers at ringside, and while all agreed that it was a superb fight from the point of view of the boxing purist, there the unanimity ended.

Without intending to sit on the fence, this observer's scorecard had the boxers level. But even if the judges had agreed with that assessment, Zaragoza would have retained his title.

Such niceties were of no consolation for McCullough. Reminded that Zaragoza had experienced setbacks in his own 64 fight career, McCullough scornfully replied: "Yes. But I won last night. Nobody will convince me otherwise.

"I will not talk of a rematch in Dublin or anywhere else. I will not box under WBC (World Boxing Council) rules again. I might never box again anyway. I am disgusted and devastated. I know I won.

"Zaragoza is a good fighter and I admire what he has done in his career. But there is no way that he beat me out there."

McCullough's determined assessment of his performance is difficult to contradict, but the swelling around both eyes and a cut scalp bore clear testimony to the fierceness of the contest which was regarded by experts as one of the best at the weight for many years.

The general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control John Morris, said it had been a privilege to be an observing official. "This was one of the best fights for years. It was a pleasure and an honour to be involved. It was fought with great intensity but with wonderful sportsmanship.

"Both boxers deserve great credit for the sporting way they dealt with a couple of clashes of heads and one or two accidental low blows. Boxing was the winner, he said.

While McCullough was dismissing the idea of a rematch, his manager, Matt Tinley, was talking positively in those terms. He told reporters that Home Box Office (HBO) television and the Zaragoza camp had already agreed to a rematch either in Dublin or in Madison Square Garden.

"I believe it is possible. Wayne is deeply disappointed and so am I, but he deserves another chance and I believe that when he gets time to think about it he will agree to a rematch and an opportunity to win the title, which we believe he deserved after Saturday night," Tinley said.

McCullough's father, Drew, his brother Alan and his former trainer, Harry Robinson, all agreed with Wayne that he had won the fight. "It was close enough but those last two rounds swung it in his favour in my view," Drew McCullough said. "If he had fought as well in the ninth and 10th rounds as he did in the last two he would have won by a mile," Robinson said.

McCullough and his wife Cheryl, flew back to their home in Las Vegas yesterday morning with McCullough still adamant that he had won.