By William Mackay: If you to fight WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s), don’t expect to get a huge payday because Khan doesn’t want to be seen as a cash cow. Recently, Khan has dismissed possible opponents because they wanted too much money to fight him. Light welterweight contenders Lamont Peterson and Paul McCloskey could find themselves ruled out as opponents for Khan because they reportedly are asking for too much money to fight Khan.
However, you really can’t blame them. Khan’s fights make tons of money on pay-per-view on Sky Sports. So it’s hard to blame Khan’s opponents for wanting to share in some of the cash, especially when they’re pretty much being brought in with very little chance to win. McCloskey has little power, is very slow, and has never fought a top tier light welterweight before. He’s ranked in the top 10 by the WBA, but fightnews doesn’t have him ranked him ranked in the top 16, and I have McCloskey ranked between 30 and 40 in the division. And Peterson is coming off a 10 round draw against Victor Ortiz where Peterson was knocked down twice and received a gift draw. Neither of these guys have much of a chance to beat Khan. So you really can’t blame them for wanting to get paid to fight him, when they’re likely going to take a loss and that’s going to hurt them.
In an article at the telegraph.co.uk, Shah Khan, the father of Amir, said this about fighters pricing themselves out for bouts against Khan: “They get the chance of fighting Amir, and seem to think they can add a couple of noughts on the purse. I don’t know where they get the notion from that we are awash with money for his fights. McCloskey still holds on to his European title, win or lose, yet he has the chance to make his name if he can beat Amir. The same thing happened a couple of years ago with Jon Thaxton, and the fight never happened. Thaxton has since retired and never got the opportunity.”
Khan was saying that Maidana was pricing himself out, so this isn’t new for him. Instead of crying over his opponents wanting to be paid well, Khan needs to look for the best fighters and the most recognizable names possible and not face guys that have little chance and are unrecognizable outside of the UK. McCloskey has never been heard of by casual boxing fans in the United States. It’s a fight only for domestic consumption in the UK. However, Khan expects HBO to show the fight in the United States. It’s not a wise move to pick someone like McCloskey instead of Breidis Prescott, who totally dominated Khan in a 1st round knockout in 2008.
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