By William Mackay: Former European Boxing Union (EBU) light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey (22-1, 12 KO’s) is smart enough to know that if he attempts to trade with Breidis Prescott (24-2, 19 KO’s) on September 10th then he’ll be in for a world of hurt against the bigger punching Colombian.

Instead of taking a risk that could lead to him getting knocked out in the 1st round, McCloskey reportedly plans on boxing Prescott and staying away from his power. It’s going to be strictly a safety first fight for McCloskey with him just looking to make Prescott miss over and over again, and then landing a few shots in every round to try and steal them.

The one thing that may get in the way of this strategy working is that Prescott doesn’t just throw power shots anymore. He uses his jab most of the time nowadays when he fights, and he’s got one of the best jabs in the light welterweight division. McCloskey perhaps has been looking at old video of Prescott back in 2009 when all he did was throw power shots.

That fight doesn’t exist anymore, and has been replaced with one that shoots a power jab out constantly. Don’t get me wrong, Prescott throws a lot of power shots and is just as deadly as before. But he’s using his jab, moving and looking to box a lot more than he ever did in the past. Prescott likes to throw a lot of jabs and with his incredibly long arms, he’s going to be able to find McCloskey again and again with it.

McCloskey was hit by Amir Khan’s jabs in his recent loss to him last April, but Prescott has a much better jab than Khan. He’s going to be a lot busier than McCloskey will be. I think McCloskey is going to need to take chances. He’ll get the hint by the 6th round when things are looking bad for him, his face swelling up from the jabs & the power shots, and he realizes that he can’t outbox Prescott. At that point, McCloskey will go right after Prescott and will likely get immediately knocked cold. McCloskey doesn’t have power or hand speed, so he’s basically like a rowboat on the rough ocean without any oars.