The swarthy Spaniard had been a pound and three-quarters over the weight for a 10-round non-title match made at 8st 12lbs, and surprised everybody by refusing to work off the surplus.

McCullough tipped the scales at 8st 8 3/4 lbs, a staggering 3lbs under the contracted weight for the fight.

"The champion has been unwell; certainly not his usual chirpy self. Yet he insisted on going through with the fight," said Alberto Gonzalez, Martinez's manager. "We're sorry about the weight hiccup, but sadder still that McCullough has walked out on the show.

"This must have been totally unexpected, especially after Kiko agreed to pay him a 20,000 euro forfeit just to box, or, better still, hand over his entire purse if he lost to Wayne."

Wife and manager Cheryl said: " Through the interpreter we were offered that Kiko would give Wayne his purse but Wayne said he's not a gambler and it has never been about the money and it's not going to start now about the money.

"Even if we had been offered a million pounds we wouldn't have taken the fight. It was about being professional. Wayne was professional, he made the weight and Martinez is not professional - he didn't make the weight."

Big-fight weigh-ins are usual sedate, mild-mannered affairs, but not this one.

The fight would have been Wayne's first in nearly two-and-a-half years, and he looked well prepared for it, if a little drawn.

Tempers might have been frayed by a suggestion that he erred badly by coming in so much under 8st 12lb, but it was a catchweights contest, one felt, in which weights were important but not decisive.

"If the argument is only over half-a-kilo, then the fight should go on," declared former British champion and Lonsdale Belt winner, Hugh Russell, now a Board official.

"Martinez will be asked to explain why he failed to meet the conditions of his contract.

"But it's not the first time this has happened, and we've always had a fight. Clearly, McCullough fans have reason to feel bitterly let down."

Pat Magee, promoter of the bill, couldn't hide his disappointment.

"Martinez screwed it up badly, and knows it," fumed Pat.

"I did my best to save the fight, but McCullough was adamant - the Spaniard must make 8st 12, or there would be no contest. It angered him that Kiko made no attempt to shed the surplus.

"I offered him an alternative opponent, a little-known guy from Tanzania, but both turned that down, too.

" It hurts me that Wayne walked out on the bill, which has now been axed."

Magee, to his credit, tried desperately to find a last-minute opponent for Martinez, but without success.

"It's a bad day for boxing," frowned Pat, "a bad day when a row over a pound-and-a-half in weight forces the cancellation of what would have been a great fight, and first-rate show."

Today, fans were asking if Las Vegas-exile McCullough, a former world champion now 37 and in the twilight of his career, will ever box in Belfast again?

His last fight here was five years ago, since when he has had only four contests, and lost three of them.

All ticket-holders for tonight's show will be refunded in full.