Wayne McCullough "honoured" to present replica WBC world title belt to "people of Belfast"

McCullough, who lives in Las Vegas, made the trip back to Northern Ireland and handed over the belt to Lord Mayor Ryan Murphy.

The 53-year-old, who won a Commonwealth gold medal as an amateur in Auckland in 1990 and was a silver medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics before turning professional, said he had “never forgotten” his roots.

“It’s their belt, the belt of the Belfast people,” McCullough told BBC Sport NI.

“I’ve never forgotten where I came from and this is to show that I haven’t forgotten.

“I was born in Belfast and the people have supported me right throughout my whole career. Although I don’t fight now, there are still a lot of fans that remember you and you have to give back to the people.

“I was born on the Shankill, lived in Highfield. I’m proud of that, proud to be a Belfast man, proud to be a Northern Ireland man, proud to be an Irishman.

“I spent 22 years here, next year I’ll be gone 31 years, but I still have my

accent. When we’re flying here, we’re flying home, and when we’re flying to Vegas we’re flying home.”

McCullough – the first Northern Ireland boxer to hold a version of the WBC title from 1995

to 1997 after beating Yasuei Yakushiji in Japan – said he was “honoured” to have the chance to present the belt in his native Belfast.

“The WBC, they do things around the world and I’m an ambassador for them. They give out belts to famous figures and people in power and they asked me would I do it and I was like, ‘I’d be honoured to’,” McCullough said.

“So I’m doing this and then next week I’m doing one in Dublin.

“I’m proud of where I come from, but it was a hard upbringing, it was tough, but the toughness sort of helped my boxing.

“In my upbringing boxing was a cross-community thing and it saved my life in a way, coming from the paramilitary place where I’m from it sort of saved my life,” he added.

“I had good Catholic friends, good Protestant friends through the years, and still do.

“It [Belfast] has changed for the better. It’s going to continue to get better too I think. When I left it was still bad but now it’s so different.”