Boxing: Wayne McCullough wants the fight and IBO super-bantamweight champion Paul Ayala said last week he wants the fight. McCullough, the Olympic silver medallist and former WBC bantamweight champion, could be stepping into the ring for his sixth world title fight this autumn.

Ayala has already publicly declared the Irishman is the number one fighter on his list.

"I would want to fight a Wayne McCullough, Danny Romero or Oscar Larios, but right now I can see myself defending my title against McCullough," said the American.

Ayala, a 33-year-old southpaw and former WBA bantamweight champion, hasn't fought since failing in a WBC featherweight title bid against Erik Morales last November.

He is a hugely popular figure with American fight fans for his ability - like that of McCullough, also 33 - to go toe to toe over the distance.

McCullough and his manager and wife, Cheryl, also want to see the fight go ahead, and Cheryl claims Top Rank, who promote Ayala, have been in contact with her a number of times about a match-up but not since the Texan made his recent request to fight the Irishman.

"I'll start by saying that, yes, we would like a fight. Top Rank have continually asked us and we've said yes but nothing yet has happened. If we are contacted by Top Rank we'll say yes. It's something we've been looking at for some time now," she said.

A legendary figure in the lighter divisions, Ayala took part in The Ring magazine's 1999 "fight of the year" at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, in which he and Johnny Tapia went toe to toe for 12 rounds.

With that landmark victory he joined an elite band that included Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Marvin Hagler, Ray Robinson and Ray Leonard as he subsequently received The Ring's prestigious Fighter of the Year Award.

"Wayne will probably be back in October one way or the other," added Cheryl McCullough.

"If he can't get Ayala, he'd like Medina (Manuel, who beat Scott Harrison following the Scottish fighter's win over McCullough in Glasgow).

"I'm expecting Wayne to get a title shot before the end of the year or early next year. But we'd like a title shot in his next fight if that is possible. We would definitely take Ayala, although he knows that Wayne would beat him," she said, adding that Wayne had fully recovered from the Harrison fight and was keen to get back into the ring.

Paul Ayala, incidentally, is routinely confused with the troubled Tony Ayala of San Antonio, a sometime drug addict who resumed his boxing career in 1999 after serving 16 years in prison for rape and was in trouble again as recently as last December over accusations he'd had sex with a minor.