in april 1998, wbo featherweight champion naseem hamed had defeated 3-division world champion wilfredo vázquez to both retain his wbo belt and become the new lineal champion of the featherweight champion. for his next fight, hamed would return to the united states for the second time in his career, having made his american debut the previous year in december against kevin kelley. then-wbo super bantamweight champion kennedy mckinney, with whom hamed had originally agreed to face earlier in the year before instead taking the vasquez fight, had emerged as a possible opponent for hamed again, but was bypassed again in favor of irish fighter wayne mccullough. mccullough had captured a silver medal in the 1992 olympics and had become the wbc bantamweight champion in 1995. he would then move up to the super bantamweight division to take on champion daniel zaragoza in a losing effort before once again moving up to the featherweight division to challenge hamed. for hamed, it was his third consecutive opponent to have been a world champion.