A year out of the spotlight has given Wayne McCullough a new appreciation of the boxing catchphrase "What have you done for me lately?"

"In Ireland people still ask me about Barcelona," said McCullough. "Over here they can't remember last January. That's why I'm going to be fighting once a month now. I want to let them know I'm still here."

Following his controversial 1997 loss to Mexican Daniel Zaragoza in their World Boxing Council super-bantamweight fight in Boston, a combination of genuine injuries, wounded pride and managerial and promotional disputes conspired to keep McCullough out of the ring for 15 months. He re-introduced himself to the boxing public on April 17th, outpointing Mexican veteran Oscar Antonio Salas at a gambling casino operated by the Mohegan Indian tribe in Connecticut. Now, 32 days later, he will face former world champion Juan Polo Perez in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday night.

Salas was the fourth opponent nominated for last month's fight. McCullough had originally signed to fight Mike Leroy Suarez, of Omaha, who fell by the wayside weeks before the date and was replaced by former European bantamweight champion Luigi Camputaro, who was in turn replaced by Mexican Guillermo Noriega.

Noriega apparently viewed the fight as his ticket over the border. No sooner had he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to change planes than he gave his manager the slip and disappeared into the netherworld of LA's ghetto of illegal immigrants. Salas was hastily summoned and answered the call, but, said McCullough, "I didn't know who I'd be fighting until I saw him at the weigh-in."

Salas, who brought a 20-13 record to the bout, acquitted himself well, even though McCullough won all 10 rounds on the cards of all three ringside judges. McCullough has always been one of those fighters willing to take one punch to land two, and, the lopsided scoring notwithstanding, all he had to do was look in the mirror to know he'd been in a fight.

"I also injured some tendons in my left hand in that one," he said this week. "I'm still taking treatment for it."

Polo Perez, who once held the International Boxing Federation's 115-pound title, is more of a known quantity, although recent intelligence gathering has proven somewhat problematic. When McCullough's camp requested footage of the opponent's previous fights, they received one - a tape of a 1990 fight.

"That'll do a lot of good. I was tempted to send them back one of my tapes from the same year," chuckled McCullough. "In 1990, I was a 19-year-old bantamweight boxing in the Commonwealth Games.

"I do know Polo (Perez) has been campaigning recently as a featherweight," said McCullough. "He went the distance with Manuel Medina and he went the distance with Wilfredo Vazquez." "And he'll probably go the distance with you," he was told. "I hope not," grinned McCullough.

McCullough had given up his WBC bantamweight title to fight Zaragoza at 122 lb, and he came away with the loss, the first of his professional career, with a broken jaw as well as psychic scars which took longer to heal.

Eddie Futch, the 84-year-old boxing legend who had served as McCullough's career-long trainer, has retired and has been replaced by Thell Torrence, Futch's chief assistant. The year-long battle over his business affairs was ultimately resolved to McCullough's satisfaction. Former manager Mat Tinley and his company, America Presents, remain McCullough's promoter, but he is now managed by his wife, Cheryl.

Even before his return to the ring, the boxer and manager had collaborated to produce a new addition: daughter Winona was born in March, and as he surveyed the lumps in his face after the Salas fight, McCullough's first thought was "My God. The baby's going to be frightened to look at me!"

Remarkably, McCullough remained the WBC's number one contender throughout his inactivity, a neat trick usually reserved for Don King fighters. McCullough views the unlikely development as a product of circumstances.

"The guy who was behind me at number two (Enrique Sanchez) went on to win the WBA title, and Spencer Oliver was behind him," McCullough said. "It was more a case of nothing happening with the people rated just below me, but to be honest, if I'd dropped to two, three or four it wouldn't have bothered me. I'd have worked my way up again.

"But since Zaragoza retired without ever giving me a rematch, I think I deserve a crack at Erik Morales anyway."

As it is, the happy by-product of his retaining the top ranking is the fact that he remains in line as a mandatory challenger for the title held by Zaragoza's successor, Morales. Although McCullough let one opportunity for the mandatory slip away while he was fighting with Tinley back in February, the match has now been made and tentatively scheduled to take place on the September 24th Oscar De La Hoya-Julio/ Cesar Chavez card in Las Vegas.

"That's what I've heard, anyway," said McCullough, who looks forward to the chance to box for the first time in several years before the fans in his adopted hometown, even if it does mean altering the family's summer schedule.

"The plan was to fight once in June and again in July and then go back to Belfast in August," said McCullough, "but if I'm to fight for the world title in September, we'd probably take one fight in about four to six weeks and then bring the baby back to Ireland in July, just before I go into training. One way or another, she's going home this summer."