By Marius McDaid: Here’s my take on Paul McCloskey:

1- McCloskey is little known

Since when does that mean that he isn’t worthy of fighting for the World Title? Also he has been the British Champion and the European Champion, so he is known by the boxers in his division and the governing bodies, you know those people that actually matter. McCloskey might not be known to every writer on this, but that might reveal that they are only interested in the hyped up fighters with promoters and money behind them…i.e Khan.

2-McCloskey doesn’t deserve the shot.

He’s the European Champion. He’s undefeated. He fought his way on the proper route through the British and European titles that Khan skipped completely. He’s rated highly by all the governing bodies. Khan wanted a fight in England, so why is everyone complaining that hes fighting the European champion rather than one of the division’s terrible British fighters. He’s in a much better position to fight than Prescott, who would just lose now, and has earned his shot, which Khan himself has said.

3-McCloskey is hand-picked opposition.

He’s the European champion. Some people say that his rankings are inflated, which is ridiculous.

4-He’s never fought top tier opposition.

Am I to understand that McCloskey is expected to vacate the European belt and just fight Malinaggi or Maidana, when he has nothing to gain? As the European Champ the next step is a World Title and Khan is the easiest and least experienced of the title holders.

To clarify—This is him fighting top tier opposition. He’s doing it now. With Khan. I don’t see what other option there is available to him to move on from Europe.

5-This will be an easy fight for Khan.

Now, I think I’ve reached the main point of the article. The people who write about Khan keep saying that McCloskey is unknown, he has inflated ranking etc. What this suggests is that they don’t know anything about McCloskey and haven’t watched his fights.

I find it difficult to accept that these people have actually watched McCloskey’s fights if they call him weak and slow. I think its very likely that someone called him weak and slow, then everyone else just copied that article.

McCloskey is an undefeated fighter, who fights without all the benefits that Khan enjoys. It’s very easy to become very good when you have Freddie Roach in the corner and Manny Pacquiao as your sparring partner.

It’s ridiculous to say that McCloskey is weaker than Malignaggi, he has twice as many knockout wins from less fights.

He has also been underestimated before, when he was given a surprise shot at the British title, as another fighter had pulled out. McCloskey was the underdog in the fight and had only a week to adapt his training to fight the British champion. Colin Lynes was forced to retire in the corner in the ninth round.

McCloskey is a very elusive fighter and also a southpaw. Khan has barely fought any southpaws in his career, none of which were particularly good. And although he does have Pacqiuao for a sparring partner, that could well cause some problems for Khan.

Khan is training with the best boxer in the world for this fight, he’s taken a drop in pay and not pulled out of the fight. He’s taking McCloskey seriously and so should everyone else.