By Scott Gilfoid: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) wants to take a fight against the weak punching EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) next rather than arguably much more dangerous contenders like Breidis Prescott, Lucas Matthysse or Lamont Peterson. However, before Khan can get the safe fight against McCloskey, HBO and Sky Sports have to agree that McCloskey is a good opponent that will attract fan interest before they fall in behind this pick.

Khan will likely have no problems with Sky, because they’ll likely go for it because McCloskey is a UK fighter and it would interest boxing fans over there who are familar with McCloskey. However, HBO is a whole different ballgame. They don’t like to show mismatches, especially ones involving obscure fighters like McCloskey. HBO likes to get their monies worth and not show fights that are mismatches going into the fight. Sadly, the Khan-McCloskey is a hopeless mismatch, a gimme fight fight Khan and not good fight on paper. If you’re a boxing fan in the United States, you won’t want to see Khan fight McCloskey because the Irish fighter has no hand speed, very little power and has a habit of fighting with his hands down by his waist.

He’s going to get taken out quickly by Khan, and it won’t be a good fight to see if you are hoping to see a competitive fight. If HBO does show this fight, it tells you that they’re really banking on Khan being a star someday because this is the type of fight that HBO doesn’t like to show. If HBO is going to pass on fights between Wladimir Klitscchko and Alexander Povetkin, then it would seem insane for them to show a fight between Khan and the unknown McCloskey. It’s a bad fight for Americans to watch.

It might be a great fight for the Brits, but Americans want to see fireworks and McCloskey is too painfully slow to make a fight of it with Khan. If I’m an HBO executive, I’m saying no to the Khan-McCloskey fight. If Khan wants to fight on HBO, he needs to take on someone like Matthysse or Prescott. I wouldn’t agree to the Khan vs. Lamont Peterson fight, because Peterson didn’t look good in his last fight against Victor Ortiz. HBO can’t agree to show every Khan fight no matter who he drags in to beat up. HBO has to think of boxing fans who will be forced to watch the Khan-McCloskey mismatch.