By Sean McDaniel: Number #7 ranked World Boxing Council (WBC) light welterweight contender and current EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey (21-0, 11 KO’s) is reportedly about to start preliminary talks of trying to set up fights with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) and WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s). The first target is Maidana, the hard hitting Argentinean that has got the imagination of the boxing world with his exciting fights against Victor Ortiz and Victor Cayo in the past year.

If a fight with Maidana can’t be made, then McCloskey will shoot for a fight against Khan. McCloskey, 30, isn’t all that impressed with Khan, saying in an article at the Independent.ie, “I know I have the ability to beat Khan. Yes, maybe he has improved since he was sensationally knocked out by Breidis Prescott in 54 seconds, but I still think he is vulnerable. Just because he has won his last five fights, some people are now talking about him in the same breath as the great Manny Pacquiao. There is no way whatsoever that he is even remotely near Manny’s class.”

McCloskey has a point there. Khan is being mentioned by some people as someone that Freddie Roach, the trainer for Khan and Pacquiao, would like to turn into another Pacquiao. However, the chances of Khan ever getting close to the level that Pacquiao is currently at seems highly unlikely at this time. One of the biggest reasons may not because of Khan’s lack of talent, because he has plenty of that.

But one reason why Khan may not wind up as good as Pacquiao is because Khan has had wealth handed to him very early in his career, which is unlike Pacquiao, who didn’t get big money until much later in his career. Additionally, Khan is being moved much slower than Pacquiao was in his career in facing tough fighters. Khan has been a pro for six years now and he’s still not facing the very top of the light welterweight division.

He’s being put in with fighters that don’t have much power and against older fighters or ones that are on the downward slide of their careers. Being matched against these types of fighters, and against smaller lightweights, likely will have a stunting effect on Khan’s career, slowing down his progress in getting better.

McCloskey is coming off an unimpressive 11th round TKO of Giuseppe Lauri on June 11th, a fight in which McCloskey took a lot of shots, looked weak and faded badly in rounds nine and ten. To his credit, he was able to stop Lauri, but he didn’t look like a top 10 contender in the fight.

McCloskey would likely have huge problems against Maidana due to his big power. McCloskey might be able to make Maidana look bad for three or four rounds, but once Maidana gets in close, he’ll ruin McCloskey’s world with his big power. There’s a huge difference between Lauri and Maidana, and I think McCloskey would be shocked at how much of a difference.