Boxing: Wayne McCullough hopes to be back in the ring within two months following his featherweight victory over Alvin Brown a fortnight ago in Las Vegas, after a 22-month absence. The win gave the former bantamweight world champion a career record of 27 wins and three defeats.

McCullough, who is waiting for television interests to come to a final decision, has asked promoter Mat Tinley to seek a venue and date for a possible Dublin fight, hopefully at the beginning of March.

"We are still waiting for television to come back to us with a date," said his manager and wife Cheryl. "We've asked Mat for a date in Dublin but really we don't know if that will happen or not. It depends on the television and how interested they are. The networks haven't indicated anything yet. We're not sure if Mat has convinced them. If it does happen it will be with Showtime."

Whether the fight will be staged on this side of the Atlantic or in the US, McCullough is confident that he will have a date in March.

"We're 99 per cent certain that it will be in March," his wife said. "Wayne was back in the gym two days after the Brown fight. He's absolutely in great condition. He suffered no ill effects whatsoever from the last one and we're very happy about that."

McCullough's dispute with the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), who refuse to grant him a licence to fight in Britain because of what they see as a potentially fatal condition, has been left in the hands of Tinley and his lawyers.

McCullough beat Brown just 14 months after the BBBC withdrew his licence and told him that one punch could kill him.

Since then McCullough (31) has learned that the cyst located on his brain following a routine scan before a fight in Belfast in October 2000 had probably been with him as far back as 1993. When doctors reviewed scans taken in 1993, they showed the cyst had been there for most of McCullough's career.