By Scott Gilfoid: If I were to describe unbeaten EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey’s power, I would rate him as a slow power-puff puncher, not a slugger or someone that could punch. This is why I’m a little baffled at WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s description of the 31-year-old McCloskey, saying he’s as tough as his last opponent Marcos Maidana. The most recent pearls of wisdom coming from Khan is this from ringtv.com: “McCloskey had 12 fights he won by knockout. He can punch.”

Oh really? I’ve seen close to 15 of McCloskey’s fights and I can say that McCloskey can’t punch, and while he may be knocking some people out, you got to take a look at the obscure fighters that McCloskey has been getting his KOs against. These aren’t world class fighters by any means, and McCloskey isn’t looking powerful in any of these fights. I get the impression that Khan doesn’t really believe that McCloskey is a big puncher, but rather he’s looking to build him up to cover up for this being a terrible mismatch.

Khan could have faced Breidis Prescott, Lamont Peterson or Victor Ortiz, but instead opted to face the feather-fisted McCloskey. And now to top it off, Khan is building up McCloskey to make him look good so that boxing fans will purchase the fight and/or watch it on HBO, and then Khan can crow about the win afterwards by bragging how he beat a big puncher. Sorry, Khan, but McClosley isn’t a big puncher and you can spout that line all day long I’m still not going to buy it. Maybe Khan’s loyal fans will buy into it, but not me. I’m too wise for that.