By William Mackay: Coach John Breen, the trainer for EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) thinks his fighter can beat WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) in their upcoming April 16th fight in the UK. It’s hard to take McCloskey seriously because he’s so slow, so wide open on defense and so weak. He looked incredibly weak and he looks smooth, as if he’s carrying around excess fat on his frame.

McCloskey might be lightweight with a little too much fat on his frame. His arms also look very short and he doesn’t help himself by fighting with his hands down by his waist, because he doesn’t have the fast reflexes needed to block punches. Again and again, McCloskey takes shots when his opponents throw at his head. Sometimes he’ll be able to lean away from the shots, but he should have his guard up and trying to block these punches instead of fighting with his hands down.

“It’s great news for Paul that the deal is gined but it’s bad for Khan,” Breen said in an article at the belfasttelgraph.co.uk. “Paul has the style to beat him without a doubt. He’s going to battle Khan with his skill and his moves. For the fight no stone will be left unturned, money will have to be spent on good sparring and a training camp second to none to make sure that Paul is ready to go and win. I get the impression that the Khan camp are taking Paul lighting and if they are underestimating Paul then that’s just great.”

I can see why Khan would be underestimating McCloskey, because he looks about as good as Dimitri Salita, another fighter that the WBA made a huge mistake of ranking number #1 without Salita ever having fought anyone in the top tier. It now looks as if the WBA is making the mistake again, this time by ranking McCloskey at number #5 rather than at a more suitable position for his talent, such as #35 to #40. McCloskey looks incredibly average, and I can see why Khan hand-picked him rather than facing a dangerous fighter. This is someone Khan can beat without having to worry about being knocked out or hurt badly like he was in his last fight against Marcos Maidana.