{"id":483479,"date":"2026-03-19T05:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483479\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:32:13","slug":"ballyclares-scott-thompson-to-link-up-with-wayne-mccullough-after-turning-pro-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483479\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballyclare&#8217;s Scott Thompson to link up with Wayne McCullough after turning pro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McCullough knows it is not an easy decision to leave home but it is one he feels will benefit young boxers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You have to make sacrifices in boxing. I was a homebird growing up. When I went away for a week with the Irish team I was crying to get home,&#8221; added McCullough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I was contracted to come to Las Vegas for three years and then go back home, but things change, your life changes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I love Belfast, I always will, but I love Las Vegas and I&#8217;ve lived here longer than I have Belfast now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The Irish fighters want to come here now too, and I&#8217;m happy they are coming because they are going to learn a lot more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A confident Thompson &#8211; who enjoyed a decorated amateur career &#8211; believes a world title lies in his future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;ll be world champion someday, that&#8217;s been my dream since I was a kid,&#8221; said the multiple Irish champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I truly believe I&#8217;ll be the best to come out of Northern Ireland ever. I&#8217;m just going to prove that.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McCullough knows it is not an easy decision to leave home but it is one he feels will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-483479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}