By Sean McDaniel: Unbeaten EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) feels that he has the physical tools to pull off a huge upset on Saturday night against WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s). McCloskey was picked out personally by Khan, who after nearly being knocked out in his last fight against Marcos Maidana last December, was looking for a softer touch. McCloskey is the soft touch that Khan picked.

McCloskey may be slow of hand, slow of foot and mostly weak in terms of power, if he can land anything on Khan’s chin he’s going to have a decent chance of winning the fight. Khan doesn’t have a great chin and his fight against further confirmed that nothing. Khan likely would have been knocked out had referee Joe Cortez not stepped in repeatedly to separate Khan and Maidana in his last fight. McCloskey, a southpaw, throws punches from the opposite side and if he can land some big shots on Khan’s chin we may have a new champion on Saturday night.

Speaking with the belfasttelegraph.co.uk, McCloskey said “I know I can beat Khan and I think this will be a bigger achievement than Barry McGuigan eating Eusebio Pedroza because Khan is at his peak and in terms of profile he’s one of the biggest names in boxing.”

McCloskey is getting a little carried away with seeing more to Khan that might be really there. Beating Khan won’t be the same as what McGuigan accomplished because Pedroza was a great champion. Pedroza held the WBA featherweight title from 1978 to 1985, defending it 18 times. In contrast, Khan has defended his WBA title only three times, two of them coming against weak opponents in Paulie Malignaggi and Dimitri Salita. Khan was knocked out only three years ago against a guy that he doesn’t seem interested in trying to avenge his defeat against in Breidis Prescott. McCloskey is really overestimating Khan’s talent and the magnitude of what an upset win over him would look like. If Khan was on the level of Pedroza, he wouldn’t have been nearly knocked out by Maidana in his last fight. Pedroza totally dominated his featherweight opposition for the most part until getting beaten by McGuigan.