By William Mackay: The Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) vs. Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) fight for the WBA Super World light welterweight title belonging to Khan, will be shown as part of a delayed television doubleheader broadcast on HBO on April 16th. The Khan-McCloskey fight will be shown after the WBC welterweight match-up between champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) and his light welterweight opponent Victor Ortiz (28-2-2, 22 KO’s). The Berto-Ortiz fight will take place at a different location than the Khan-McCloskey fight.

The Khan-McCloskey and Berto-Ortiz fight will ensure good ratings for HBO, even though no one in the United States, outside of hardcore fans, have ever heard of or seen McCloskey fight. Khan will be the draw in that fight, and hopefully because of the help that Khan got from popular HBO fighter Marcos Maidana in his last fight, Khan might be able to draw some decent ratings for this fight on HBO.

The Berto vs. Ortiz fight likely won’t interest fans other than the hardcore fans because Berto still hasn’t developed a fan base in the U.S. despite HBO ramming him down the throats of viewers by showing Berto’s title defenses, many of them against smaller light welterweights rather than fighters from his own division, on HBO fight after fight. The problem is Berto and his management hasn’t shown much urgency in matching Berto tough since he won the WBC title in 2008, and after five title defenses, boxing fans are still waiting for Berto to face his first interesting opponent.

Ortiz, it’s sad to say, is the closest thing that Berto has gotten to facing an appealing opponent. The problem is Ortiz is a light welterweight, and once again Berto will be facing a smaller fighter in terms of weight class. Berto doesn’t want to fight at light welterweight, but rather he just wants to be able to fight light welterweights. Berto hasn’t shown the same kind of interest in facing slightly bigger fighters from the junior middleweight division, because Berto hasn’t been in a rush to fight guys like Kermit Cintron or Alfredo Angulo.

The Khan vs. McCloskey fight will likely be an ugly mismatch, because McCloskey, though ranked high by the WBA at #5, is painfully slow and has no power. His defense is really his offense. He fights with his hands down by his sides and he gets hit a lot. That kind of fighting style will leave him open to Khan’s flurries and we could see another quick knockout for Khan like the one he had against another WBA contender, who oddly enough was ranked #1, Dmitry Salita. Khan knocked him out in the 1st round in December 2009.

Why the WBA had Salita at number #1 is anyone’s guess, because he had never fought a 1st tier fighter before, and yet he was ranked at the top spot for Khan to defend his title against. McCloskey looks to me to be a 2nd tier fighter and not someone that deserves to be ranked in the top 5. My guess is we’ll be seeing another quick knockout for Khan, and it’s going to make him seem better than he really is. I thought Khan would have been knocked out in his last fight against Marcos Maidana if the referee Joe Cortez hadn’t kept stepping in to pull Maidana off of Khan while he was pounding Khan with power shots against the ropes in the later rounds.