By William Mackay: WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) could have arguably made more money and attracted more interest by facing knockout artist Breidis Prescott in a rematch on April 16th, but instead Khan and his management team opted to go with the weak-punching, slow-fisted Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) in this tune-up bout to get ready for a unification bout against WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley on July 23 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Now McCloskey is a southpaw, and hasn’t faced world class competition during his career and seems to have been given his high #5 ranking by the WBA based on his fights against B level opposition. It’s generally a bad sign when one of the sanctioning bodies gives certain fighters a high ranking when they haven’t ever fought anyone in the 1st tier.

We saw that with one of Khan’s opponents not too long ago Dimitri Salita, who the WBA ranked #1 based on his wins over B and C level fighters. Like McCloskey, Salita was also painfully slow of hand and not a huge puncher. As such, what we could be seeing is another Salita-like ending with Khan taking out McCloskey in the 1st, possibly the 2nd round, if Khan comes out throwing. But does McCloskey have a chance in this fight?

I have a hard time giving him any chance based on his previous fights. He doesn’t look good at all, and his habit of carrying his hands low is going to be taken advantage of by Khan. I can’t see why McCloskey fights like that, because he gets nailed even by the lower level opposition he’s been fighting during his career at the Euro level.