By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan reportedly thinks the light hitting Paul McCloskey (22-1, 12 KO’s) will beat knockout artist Breidis Prescott (24-2, 19 KO’s) with ease on September 10th in their clash at the Odyssey Arena in Northern, Ireland. That’s strange coming from Khan considering he beat McCloskey and was knocked out in one round in a vicious knockout in 2008.
You don’t know whether Khan is saying that out of spite or if he really means it. I’ve seen McCloskey fight plenty of times and I can’t see him punching his way out of a wet paper bag, and certainly not being able to trouble a slugger like Prescott. But I do wonder whether Khan means whether McCloskey can win a controversial decision where he’s totally dominated by Prescott but gets a hometown decision. After all, the fight is taking place in McCloskey’s home country of Ireland.
Precott may have to literally knock McCloskey out to get a win in this case just to be safe. Khan looked horrible against McCloskey, missing with wild shots for six rounds before getting a nice head butt stoppage, ala Marco Antonio Barrera. I don’t see McCloskey being able to compete with Prescott. I think he can run around the ring and try not to get hit all night, but Prescott will hit him and hit a lot.
Even the Prescott that lost a decision to Kevin Mitchell would beat McCloskey in my view. McCloskey would make Prescott miss, but eventually he would land one of his big power shots and would have McCloskey bleeding and/or flat on his back the way that Khan was in his fight against Prescott. But with Prescott having changed his boxing style to where he’s using more jabs, movement and throwing less power shots, I don’t give McCloskey even a small chance at winning.
I don’t expect a fighter like Khan to know that Prescott has changed his style, because he probably didn’t see Prescott’s last fight against Bayan Jargal, so I can kind of understand why Khan would be in the dark about Prescott. Khan probably is remembering the Prescott that fought Mitchell and is thinking from that fight McCloskey could win. He wouldn’t, but I can see Khan being fooled by that bout.
Prescott will knock McCloskey out in a devastating manner in front of his Irish fans and then move on to take on the winner of the Marcos Maidana vs. Roberto Guerrero fight for the regular WBA light welterweight title. Once Prescott wins that fight, there will be a massive amount of pressure on Khan to try and avenge his loss to Prescott. I see Khan resisting that pressure and not fighting Prescott.
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