WAYNE McCullough's endearing personality and his undoubted commitment to his craft was generously demonstrated when he put on a public sparring session in the Guinness Hop Store in Dublin yesterday.

What surprised many was the ferocity of the two round sparring session with Lyndon Kershaw from Halifax. Both rounds were extended to four minutes and anyone who believed that these were mainly, for show or for the doubtful benefit of the camera were very soon disabused of such belief.

Kershaw spared the world bantamweight title holder nothing as the leather flew and McCullough responded in a way which suggests that the fight itself may be tame in comparison. One was tempted afterwards to ask why Kershaw was not getting an opportunity to take McCullough's title away from him. Certainly, on the evidence before us the young man from Halifax was more credible opponent than Johnny Bredhall from Denmarlt who ran away from his title challenge in Belfast a few short months ago.

The intensity of the sparring from McCullough's other partner, Robbie Murray from Ballyfermot was less intense But nobody was in any doubt that McCullough means business on what may be his last fight in Ireland.

He was, very clearly, handing out a warning to his Mexican opponent, Jose Luis Bueno, that next week's fight is for "for real" and that he had no intention of surrendering the title he had won on Japanese soil to a challenger on Irish territory.

McCullough went through an elaborate and punishing routine in the ring set up on the premises of Guinness. It included warm ups, sparring, stretching, skipping and agreeably to the swapping of banter with curious onlookers, many of them children.

McCullough has never backed away from a challenge either inside or outside the ring. When he was completely - fed up with what he considered to be totally unacceptable surroundings in an Olympic camp in Germany not long before the Barcelona Olympics he simply packed his bags and come back to Belfast.

When he was, clearly, in severe pain in the Olympic bantamweight final in Barcelona he refused his corner's advice to throw in the towel and provided Irish boxing supporters with one of the most inspiring performances ever given by an Irish boxer in an amateur ring.

After sharing a heroes' welcome in Dublin with Michael Carruth he made his views known quite trenchantly to the Lord Mayor of Belfast who refused to invite Michael Carruth to the public acknowledgement of McCullough's Olympic silver medal achievement. Carruth was, the Lord Mayo said, a citizen of a "foreign" country and horrors of horrors, a member of the Irish Army.

McCullough's greatest achievement, apart from being a thoroughly likable young man, was in going to Nagoya in Japan to win the World Boxing Council bantamweight title on what constituted really, seriously "foreign" soil.

McCullough deserves the complete support of all Irish sports supporters and it is hoped that they will rally around for what promises, to be a very exciting occasion which will add another chapter to the chronicle of Irish boxing lore.

In the meantime, it now appears certain, if anything in boxing can be so described, that a match between Steve Collins and Nigel Benn for the World Boxing Organisation super middleweight title will take place in June.

Collins is determined that it should be in Ireland but television, as is now almost obligatory, is likely to dictate the date and venue.