Khan vs. Prescott is a backwards step for Amir, but McCloskey isn’t much better

By Boxing News - 01/17/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: I agree with that Breidis Prescott would be a backwards step for WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan in terms of his progression as a fighter, albeit a dangerous backwards step. This would be the equivalent of Wladimir Kltischko fighting an immediate rematch with Ross Puritty, Corrie Sanders or Lamon Brewster. Prescott handled Khan in such a way that left no doubt that he owned him as a fighter and would likely own him again in the future.

With that said, a fight against Paul McCloskey is one where I don’t see much progression there for Khan other than the fact that McCloskey is ranked higher than Prescott by the WBA. This is a fight that’s the equivalent of Kelly Pavlik vs. Gary Lockett, as writer Scott Christ called it BLH. There’s not much to be gained from beating a guy like McCloskey other than having a name on his resume. I don’t see this as a progression fight for Khan, honestly. McCloskey is a slower, weaker version of Paulie Malignaggi. Khan already showed he can beat Malignaggi, so why face a poor copy of Malignaggi in McCloskey?

If Khan wants to think of a fighter that will help him get better, then he needs to fight Prescott or some of the better light welterweights in the division like Victor Ortiz, Lamont Peterson, Juan Urango, Brandon Rios, Kaizer Mabuza and Lucas Matthysse. I don’t see McCloskey as being a fighter that belongs with that bunch and one where there’s no real ability for Khan to progress as fighter. We already know that Khan can beat a light-punching slick fighter like McCloskey because Khan already defeated Paulie Malignaggi, who I rate much higher than McCloskey. What we don’t know is how well Khan can do against punchers.

We saw Khan “survive” against Marcos Maidana in his last fight, but that wasn’t a fight where Khan looked good. Like I said, he survived that fight but didn’t impress. Khan needs to learn how to beat the sluggers because he can’t be maneuvered his entire career around them to avoid fighting them. It took Khan ages to finally fight Maidana, and he looked terrible. If Khan is to progress, he needs to beat strong fighters, not slow, weak and slick fighters like McCloskey, who basically no threat to him.



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