By Sean McDaniel: The April 16th bout between WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) And challenger Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) will go ahead as planned according to Khan’s father Shah Khan. The bout was in doubt after Sky Sports decided to change the Khan-McCloskey bout from a pay-per-view bout to Sky 3, which made took it off PPV and made it free for Sky subscribers. Khan’s paycheck will shrink dramatically because of the change but he’s okay with it.

Shah, speaking with the dailymail.co.uk, said “In real terms Amir is paying McCloskey out of his own pocket but he’s okay with that because he has always wanted to come back from the U.S for this fight in front of his home fans.”

Khan likely would have held onto his big paycheck from Sky had he chosen a better known opponent like Breidis Prescott instead of the weaker-punching McCloskey. The Khan-Prescott II rematch would have drawn a lot of interest for fans to see if Khan would get knocked out again or if he could avenge his defeat. However, Khan and his management team weren’t interested in the Prescott rematch and seemed to be dialed in on McCloskey from the very start.

It seems they badly misjudged what the average boxing fan was interested in seeing because it seems few people want to see Khan face the little known McCloskey. Khan’s loyal fans say he deserves a little known opponent without power like McCloskey, and that’s true. Khan fought his heart out in his last fight against Marcos Maidana last December and took a royal beating in that fight in winning by a decision. However, you can’t expect boxing fans to want to flock in high numbers to pay to see you fight a little known fighter like McCloskey.

You got to take chances and face big names if you want to continue to get the big money. Khan has had his share of easy fights in the past few years against Paulie Malignaggi, Dimitri Salita, Andriy Kotelnik, and Marco Antonio Barrera. It looks he needs to step it up a level and stay at that level rather than dipping back down to obscure fighters who have never fought top tier competition before like McCloskey.

Most of the tickets for Khan’s fight against McCloskey have been sold at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England. Had Khan chosen a better opponent all of the seats would likely have been sold out long ago.