By William Mackay: #6 ranked WBA contender Paul McCloskey (22-0, 8 KO’s) has rejected an offer that is reported to have been in the low six figures to face World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) on April 16th in the UK. Team Khan sent out a press release today, saying that McCloskey was offered three times what he usually gets for his fights but that McCloskey wanted five times what he normally gets.

Even if that’s true, it’s still quite a bit lower than what Khan will get for the fight from the British pay-per-view money and the money he’ll be getting from HBO. You can’t blame McCloskey for wanting to get more, because Khan’s money is going to dwarf his. Khan is the one that wants to fight the light-punching McCloskey. Khan could always pick out one of the more dangerous options like Breidis Prescott, Marcos Maidana or Lucas Matthysse to fight and probably make a lot more money against, but Khan wanted the slow, weak-punching McCloskey.

If that’s what you want, then Khan needs to pay to get the guy in the ring. The other options are far more dangerous. Khan doesn’t seem to want anything to do with Maidana, Matthysse and Prescott for some reason. The other options for Khan are the slow and smaller John Murray, a Euro level fighter who has never fought a world class opponent before. There’s also #5 ranked Lamont Peterson, who is coming off a 10 round gift draw against Victor Ortiz. Peterson looked horrible in that fight and can’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag. However, I consider him a lot better than McCloskey, so I doubt he’ll get the fight with Khan. My guess is Murray will get selected because he’s short, slow and has never fought a world class fighter before.