By William Mackay: World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) and unbeaten EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) are reportedly close to agreeing to terms for a fight that will be taking place on April 16th, at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England. McCloskey’s manager/father in law Francie McNicholl, had this to say in an article at the Londonberrysentinel: “We are moving in the right direction. I’ve been talking to Shah Khan [Amir’s father] today and we would be hopeful we can arrive at an agreement. One or two things need to be ironed out.”

This is the fight that Khan, 24, wants to get attention from his fans in the UK. Many of Khan’s British fans want to see Khan face McCloskey, who is ranked at number #5 by the World Boxing Association, rather than someone arguably much dangerous like Breidis Prescott, Lucas Matthysse or a rematch with Marcos Maidana. Khan’s fans feel that Khan deserves to take an easy fight with McCloskey instead of risking getting his head taken off again by Prescott or getting thrashed by Maidana or Matthysse.

Some of Khan’s fans even think McCloskey can beat Khan. I’ve seen a number of McCloskey’s fights and don’t see how anyone can arrive at the conclusion that he’ll anything but a knockout victim. McCloskey looks like a slicker version of the slow-handed, weak-punching Dimitri Salita. In other words, McCloskey is another one of Khan’s over-ranked fodder opponents that he’s been accustomed to fighting since he was blasted out by Prescott in 2008.

Facing McCloskey won’t likely do much to help prepare Khan for the trouble he’s going to have when he’s put in with the winner of the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander. Going from a slow fighter with no power like McCloskey to the blazing speed quickness and the excellent power of Alexander and Bradley, will be like jumping from cold water into boiling lava. McCloskey is not a good preparation for the kind of talent that Khan will be facing when he gets in with Bradley or Alexander. He won’t be able to beat them by running around the ring and stopping every once in while to throw a wild flurry in which most of the punches miss badly.

Khan will need an inside game to beat them, because running and throwing meaningless flurries won’t get the job done. Freddie Roach, Khan’s trainer, needs to try and teach Khan how to fight on the inside because he might not get lucky again if he tries to hold onto one of Bradley’s or Alexander’s arms all night long while on the inside. Joe Cortez, the referee that worked the Khan-Maidana fight, saved Khan by separating Khan when he was getting pounded on the inside by Maidana while Khan foolishly held onto one of Maidana’s arms. Instead of taking a point away from Khan for his constant holding, Cortez pulled Khan and Maidana apart while Khan was getting clubbed.