By William Mackay: Frank Warren, the previous promoter for WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s), doesn’t feel that Khan’s fight with Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) this Saturday night is a pay-per-view event without a good undercard to bolster the card. Warren points out that Khan’s team fail to understand that the card isn’t worthy of being put as a PPV. The fight was previously on Sky pay-per-view, but when the best undercard fights fell apart, it left a bunch of lesser known fighters taking on totally obscure opponents.

Warren had this to say about Khan-McCloskey on thesun.co.uk: “The fact is him [Khan] against McCloskey with a poor undercard is not a pay-per-view event. That’s what the issue is and the problem team Khan do not seem to understand.”

Khan and his team were stubbornly convinced that his fight with McCloskey was worthy of being PPV, even though McCloskey isn’t a star and few people are giving him any chance. Few fighters can have their fights be shown on PPV when they’re facing a non-star in bouts that are mismatches on paper. Manny Pacquiao may be able to get away with fighting guys that casual fans have clue about, but Pacquiao already has a huge following based on his mega fights with Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto. Khan has had none of those big fights.

Pacquiao didn’t become a PPV star until he had been fighting for 13 years as a pro. Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn’t become a PPV attraction until he had been fighting for 10 years and had won titles in three separate weight divisions. Mayweather had beaten a number of notable fighters during those years in proving he was one of the best fighters in the sport. In contrast, Khan has been fighting for only six years and the best fighter he’s faced is Marcos Maidana.

There just isn’t enough quality fights under Khan’s belt for him to be a big PPV attraction right now. It’s not to say that he won’t be one in the future. Who knows? Perhaps Khan will be there in a year or two, and then he can fight guys like McCloskey and it will still be put on PPV and do really well. But Khan isn’t there yet, and instead of rewarding himself by taking on weaker fighters like McCloskey as a tune-up and then insisting that the fight is a PPV worthy bout, he should be looking at the big picture by putting it on regular television and trying to reach as many boxing fans as possible in order to increase his popularity. By doing this Khan could hopefully become a PPV attraction like Pacquiao and Mayweather some day.