By Scott Gilfoid: I’d love to be a fly on the wall at HBO headquarters as they discuss whether to serve up Amir Khan’s fight against hand-picked unknown Paul McCloskey on April 16th to their loyal HBO subscribers in the United States. Few casual fans in the U.S have even heard of Khan, and now Khan and his promoters are looking to put him in with a fighter that only UK boxing fans are familiar with. That’s not exactly the smartest thing to do if you ask me.

If Khan wants to fight a local domestic fighter, then he needs to but not with HBO showing the fight. The last time I checked, McCloskey has never even faced a top tier world class opponent during his career. And this the guy that Khan wants to fight next? Figures. HBO and Sky Sports are deciding whether to agree to show Khan’s next fight with McCloskey as the opponent.

Khan could have selected the dangerous puncher Breidis Prescott, who American and UK fans are familiar with, but Khan wants McCloskey. Prescott just happens to have a 1st knockout win over Khan in 2008. I wonder if that has anything to do with Khan not wanting to fight Prescott? Lamont Peterson, #6 WBA ranked contender, was in the running for this fight but the word is he priced himself out. I wonder if Khan’s management quickly abandoned that fight without hearing a counter offer from Peterson’s people? I hate that fight, too, because Peterson was batted around by Victor Ortiz in his last fight in December and got what I consider a gift 10 round draw after getting knocked down twice. HBO, like myself, had Ortiz beating Peterson.

I’m hoping HBO says no to Khans’ choice of McCloskey and makes him find a suitable opponent like Prescott or Lucas Matthysse. Those are the only guys I want to see Khan face other than a rematch with Maidana without Joe Cortez as the referee.