By William Mackay: Light welterweight Paul McCloskey (24-2, 12 KO’s) didn’t luck out in getting a rematch against Amir Khan in December like he was hoping to get, but he still has a chance of getting a fight with him in 2013, says Khan’s father Shah Khan. McCloskey lost to Khan last year in April when McCloskey suffered a cut over his left eye from an accidental head clash in the 6th round in that fight. The ringside door then quickly halted the fight despite the fact that the cut really wasn’t all that bad looking when examined after the fight.

In an interview at the Londonderrysentinel.co.uk, Shah Khan said “It’s [Khan vs. McCloskey rematch] still a possibility for the future. It was absolutely a fight that Amir might have kept with Paul if the fight was in the UK, not problem, but because he is in America we have a Mexican opponent [Carlos Molina] instead.”

Shah went on to say that McCloskey looked good in beating his last opponent light welterweight contender Manuel Perez by a 12 round unanimous decision on September 22nd last month. This was what gave Shah the idea that McCloskey wouldn’t be a bad guy for Khan to fight. However, as Shah said, Khan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions chose to stage Khan’s next fight in the United States, so that pretty much made it necessary for them to get an opponent, in this case a Mexican, that boxing fans could possibly identify with. I think it takes a little more than choosing a Mexican in order for boxing fans in the U.S to be interested in seeing a fight like this. Molina is an unknown, so it’s not as if a ton of boxing fans are going to tune into the fight just because he’s fighting on HBO or Showtime.

It takes a well known guy. I think McCloskey vs. Khan would be about as popular as a Khan vs. Molina fight in the U.S. Molina has been pretty well hidden away his entire career off of network television, so for the casual boxing fan, he’s a nobody. Perhaps the biggest plus in choosing Molina over McCloskey is Molina’s impressive 17-0, 7 KO’s record. That kind of thing will impressive a lot of fans, even if 99% of the wins came against weak opposition.