Preview: Amir Khan vs Paul McCloskey
Posted by Sport.co.uk on: 15 April 2011 - 09:26
Author: Michael Carr
Amir Khan knows the expectations placed upon him by his fans, his trainer Freddie Roach and the watching world. So he will be hoping to avoid complacency against Ireland’s Paul McCloskey on Saturday night at the M.E.N Arena.
On paper McCloskey is a great choice as an opponent to Khan’s throne, he is unbeaten in 22 fights, European champion, with a big Irish following who will buy the fight on pay-per-view. Domestically this is the biggest fight in the light welterweight division, but the question everyone is asking is, ‘just how good is Paul McCloskey?’
Dispelling the doubters
The old adage in boxing is that you’re only as good as your last fight. In Amir Khan’s case his last fight was against Argentinean banger Marcos Maidana and he performed incredibly well. Many fans and experts predicted he would leave the ring on a stretcher.
Khan came to the ring as a champion who wasn’t respected. That night Khan finally earned the respect of the fans, the writers and the world. Putting on a display of dazzling speed, guts, determination and most importantly heart.
Instead of using his newly found cautious approach that he’s mastered under Freddie Roach, Khan went to war, taking Maidana’s best shots and firing back with his own. When the final bell rang his face was marked with bruises and cuts from having to endure the full explosive arsenal of Maidana’s punches.
Khan takes yet another Maidana uppercut
Although Khan proved what a warrior he is that night, fights like are known to have a detrimental effect on any fighter’s career. It pleases the fans, it looks fantastic for the TV cameras but Khan will want to avoid any more gruelling fights like that if he is to remain a top contender.
McCloskey will have seen Khan’s willingness to engage in a brawl as a weakness that he can exploit. If McCloskey can get in close avoiding Khan’s jab, will Khan stay cool and step away? Or will he do what he has always done under those circumstances and see the red mist and attempt to fight fire with fire.
Keeping the fight competitive
Even if Khan does see the red in the ring and has to take a few hard punches this fight will come down to whether McCloskey can take Khan’s power, cope with Khan’s speed, keep up with Khan’s footwork, and get inside Khan’s jab? If McCloskey can manage to do all those things this fight will be competitive otherwise we’re looking at a mismatch.
One people would be paying £14.95 on Primetime to watch, for fans who previously splashed out on pay-per-views involving Khan such as his Olsin Fagan and Dmitriy Salita those fans felt ripped off for the poor quality undercards and the disappointing main event.
You can’t blame them for feeling like they’re getting their fingers burnt in terms of value for money. Many of them have spoken out on boxing forums about boycotting this fight in protest subsequently leaving both Khan and McCloskey substantially out of pocket.
Has McCloskey got a genuine chance?
Even with the odds being in Khan’s favour, McCloskey has the ability to cause Khan a few problems. He throws punches from all angles and even with just fourteen knockouts in twenty two fights it’s likely the Khan camp will have underestimated him .Not only does he possess excellent timing and counter-punching he also carries his punching power with him into the later rounds, as shown by his late knockout of Guiseppe Lauri.
Previously McCloskey hasn’t been in the ring with anyone who comes close to world class calibre. It’s very likely this is a case of too much and too soon. After all he took the offer to fight Khan after a fight between Khan and Lamont Peterson fell through. Even then his team wrangled over the negotiating for weeks. They wanted to make sure their fighter got paid handsomely. This type of attitude shows they don’t have much belief that their fighter can beat Khan and move onto more lucrative pay-days.
Improbable not impossible
Whether you love him or hate him, there’s no doubting that Khan is an entertaining fighter. This fight should be a stepping stone to a showdown with Timothy Bradley later in the year. My prediction is Khan will end things decisively in the late rounds.
Although stranger things have happened in boxing recently, who would have thought that a very jaded and shot Erik Morales would come so close to beating Marcus Maidana last weekend? Khan has been caught cold before, against Breidis Prescott. If he takes the same complacent approach into this fight he could be looking up at the referee counting to ten after reacquainting himself to the canvas.