BOXING:BY THE midpoint of Friday night's scheduled 10-rounder against Juan Ruiz it had become clear to Wayne McCullough that 37 years on this earth, 34 gruelling fights, and a hiatus from the ring of nearly three years had conspired to take their toll.

The magic that had made him a world champion a dozen years ago was no longer there. McCullough knew it was unlikely to return on this steamy night in a tropical paradise, or on any other night.

After the fifth round, Wayne summoned his wife and manager, Cheryl, to the corner from her ringside seat.

"It's just not there," he told her. "I just can't get it going."

"I said, 'Well, let's stop it, then,' Cheryl recalled telling her husband. "But then Jacob (cut-man extraordinaire Jacob "Stitch" Duran, the chief second in McCullough's corner) said, 'Why don't we give it another round?' and Wayne agreed."

Ironically, McCullough won the sixth on the cards of two ringside judges, but when he returned to the corner Cheryl was waiting there for him, and he shook his head. The American referee Steve Smoger was summoned and informed of the Belfast fighter's withdrawal.

"If anybody was going to stop the fight, Cheryl and I were going to do it together," said McCullough. "I never did feel right. My legs weren't under me as much as they should have been. It just wasn't there."

Since even in his best fighting days McCullough, with his hell-for-leather, wade-in style had always absorbed his share of punishment, the frequency with which he was hit by the younger California journeyman had triggered no alarm bells, but in his own mind McCullough recognised this for what it was.

"I'd felt good in training, when I was more than holding my own sparring with all these young guys, but against (Ruiz) I felt like I had nothing," said Wayne.

"He always got hit a lot, but he had nothing on his punches," said Smoger, who deemed the strategic withdrawal a wise move. "He couldn't do enough to keep this kid off him."

Two judges had McCullough fractionally ahead after six rounds, and our own unofficial scorecard had McCullough and Ruiz winning three rounds apiece.

"Really?" McCullough arched an eyebrow in apparent surprise. "I'd have given myself only one - the second."

Not that the closeness of the issue is likely to change McCullough's mind. After the stoppage he used the ring announcer's microphone to tell the crowd it had "probably" been his last fight, and in the dressing-room afterward he confirmed that decision.

"When I make a decision, I make a decision," he said. "It's not like I'm going to get a new lease on life if I go back and try again. This is it."

McCullough, who goes out with a record of 27-7, is already well into a second career that takes him around the world as an advance publicist for Ultimate Fighting Championships and insisted, "This was never about the money."

That is certainly the case in his finale. Although the Caymanian Ministry of Tourism spent more than £1 million underwriting promoter Dan Goossen's card, McCullough was there primarily to beef up the live undercard. His purse was only a few thousand dollars for a fight not even included on the telecast back to the US.

It has been a dozen years since he last won a fight for a world title - his split-decision win over Jose Luis Bueno at The Point. He had in the meantime lost six championship fights to five world champions (Daniel Zaragoza, Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales, Scott Harrison, and Oscar Larios - twice).

Friday's anticlimax marked the first time he had lost a fight that was not for a world title.