Khan vs. McCloskey II possible for December 8th or 15th

By Boxing News - 09/28/2012 - Comments

Image: Khan vs. McCloskey II possible for December 8th or 15thBy Scott Gilfoid: With his boxing career on the ropes after two straight losses, former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) could be on the verge of taking his career in reverse by fighting 2nd tier former light welterweight contender Paul McCloskey (24-2, 12 KO’s) on December 8th or 15th. McCloskey’s manager Francie McNicholl said to the BBC that they’ve contacted by Khan’s team about a fight in December.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Khan will fight McCloskey because unbeaten welterweight contender Diego Chaves reportedly also has been contacted about fighting Khan in December as well.

It’s possible that Khan’s management is reaching out to a number of fighters to see which ones are agreeable to fighting Khan in December. From there, it’s the simple matter of getting HBO or Showtime to agree to one of the choices. McCloskey-Khan II will be a very hard sell to one of those networks. It’s a stinker of a mismatch, and who wants to see them fight again? If I’m working for Showtime and HBO, I’d say no to Golden Boy if they offered up the Khan vs. McCloskey II fight. No way would I televise this horrible fight.

You’d have to imagine that the light hitting McCloskey might be Team Khan’s #1 choice because McCloskey has very little power to speak of and would be virtually no threat to knocking the fragile-chinned Khan out. The problem here is that McCloskey was already beaten by Khan by a 6th round technical decision last year in April in one-sided fight in Manchester, UK. The fight was halted in the 6th round after McCloskey suffered a cut above his left eye from an accidental headbutt in the round. McCloskey didn’t help himself by not looking and sounding confident when the referee asked him if he could see through the blood.

Getting HBO or Showtime to agree to a second Khan-McCloskey mismatch might be a difficult. Golden Boy Promotions would likely have to shop the mismatch first with HBO, and if they reject the fight, which I think they will, then Golden Boy may try and get Showtime to agree to televise it. It’s just a truly awful fight in my estimation. McCloskey doesn’t possess the offensive skills win this fight, and he’ll likely run around the ring like the last time he fought Khan, just trying to make him miss all night in a boring fight. McCloskey does throw punches when he’s fighting slow guys like Manuel Perez, who he beat last Saturday night by a 12 round unanimous decision. However, McCloskey threw next to nothing in six rounds against Khan last year in April.

What makes McCloskey an even worse choice for Khan is that McCloskey was recently knocked out in the 10th round by DeMarcus Corley in May in a fight where McCloskey was staggering around the ring like a drunk after getting hit with a big left hand from Corley. In McCloskey’s fight before that, he won a highly controversial 12 round unanimous decision over former Khan conqueror Breidis Prescott last year in September in a fight that took place in McCloskey’s home country of Northern Ireland.

McCloskey appeared win only one round in that fight, and the scoring was just dreadful. At best, McCloskey won three rounds if you were to ignore all the head-snapping jabs that Prescott was landing in the last six rounds of the fight while McCloskey flailed and missed with almost every shot he threw. It was comical to watch because McCloskey looked so terrible in that fight. But the ending was just so sad, McCloskey staggering around the ring in the 12th after getting rocked by Prescott, and then shockingly McCloskey being given the victory. So you can really say that McCloskey has lost three out of his last four fights going into a second Khan fight.

I wouldn’t expect Showtime or HBO to know that unfortunately, so they bless this god awful mismatch and show it to the American public. Khan can definitely beat a guy like McCloskey, but so what? McCloskey is getting beaten left and right nowadays, so why force-feed a second Khan-McCloskey mismatch on the American public? This fight is ESPN2 all the way as far as I’m concerned, and I’m not talking main event. I’m talking about an undercard position for this mismatch.



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