Boxing:Dungiven's Paul McCloskey has defended his world title credentials ahead of his crack at Amir Khan's WBA Light Welterweight belt in Manchester on Saturday night.
The 31-year-old southpaw, who boasts a 22-fight unbeaten record, takes on Khan in a voluntary defence of his title and is believes he has earned the right to get in the ring with the Bolton fighter.
“With me being European champion and the highest ranked European fighter in the world, it was the most natural fight to have over here for Khan,” said McCloskey. “From a negotiating point of view they held all the aces but I’m happy enough with what I’ve got (financially) and where I’m at. The deal was set up and my team was happy enough with it.
“The opportunity here is amazing. Being honest with you, a couple of years ago I would have fought Amir Khan for nothing, just to prove the point. But actually that is not the case now, I’ve got a right to have this fight, I have earned the right to be here.
“I hope they are looking by me. You never know.”
And that is exactly what Khan seems to be doing, admitting he has one eye on a big summer unification clash with Timothy Bradley.
Khan, whose last fight was a superb win over Argentinian’s Marcos Maidana, said: “McCloskey wasn’t on my radar until after the Maidana fight. I wanted the winner of Devon Alexander v Timothy Bradley (which Bradley won in January) but I thought it was too long a gap to wait and that I might as well have a fight in between.
“Looking at the world rankings, McCloskey’s name was there. So I thought ‘why don’t I fight a British guy, from Northern Ireland, who is going to bring a great big following and who people from England know too, instead of an American opponent who nobody knows here?’ So that’s what we chose.
“You can never take any fight easy but Maidana is heavy handed and I don’t think McCloskey hits as hard. But he is going to be smarter than Maidana, I know that. He’s a southpaw, too, which makes it a little bit awkward. But I think it’s a fight that can take me to bigger and better things. Winning this will take me to Bradley.
“We want to get this fight done first. There’s no point looking too far ahead.”
Khan hopes his partnership with American promotional giants Golden Boy can help negotiations with Bradley go smoothly.
He added: “We know what we want but we’re not in talks about it yet. I want to get this guy (McCloskey) out the way and then as soon as I have got him out the way then Golden Boy Promotions, who I’m with, can negotiate the big fight against Bradley and hopefully we can get that down in America or maybe here, which would be amazing.”
Saturday’s fight is being overshadowed by an ongoing row about a lack of mainstream television coverage with the fight being shown on the low-profile Primetime TV channel after a fall-out with Sky Sports.
McCloskey’s promoter Eddie Hearn claims his fighter is now earning more from the fight than the champion and accused Khan’s team of “total commercial suicide” and “operational incompetence” today.
Khan’s American promoter Oscar De La Hoya and the fighter himself rejected the criticism, claiming they will enjoy a significant pay-day from American TV giant HBO.
The bill was due to be shown on Sky Box Office before being downgraded to Sky Sports 3 by the broadcasting giant, who decided to exert a degree of quality control. It is believed Khan’s team then took umbrage at not being on Sky Sports 1 or 2 and therefore threw their lot in with Primetime.
Hearn, of Matchroom Sport, said: “If we keep doing things like this, we’ll kill the game. Don’t be stubborn and stupid and kill your relationship with Sky. It shows stubbornness and a lack of understanding of the TV market. There’s not one person who thinks this was the right decision.
“I have nothing but full respect for Amir Khan and I wonder how the loss of probably a million and a half pounds through the operational incompetence of his team will affect him on the night.
“Of course we had problems, of which it is not my right to go into, and this fight was taken off pay-per-view. We all know the undercard which was put together was not accepted by the broadcaster. In 20 years of working in the fight game, we’ve never experienced that kind of action.
“I think what has been done here has probably killed Amir’s credibility in the UK, certainly with our leading sports broadcaster.
American ring legend and Golden Boy Promotions president De La Hoya rejected Hearn’s criticism.
He countered: “When Khan decided to go to Primetime, people are saying ‘what are you doing, you’re crazy!’ Well years from now we’re going to see who is crazy.
“HBO didn’t pick up this fight for free. If you think Amir Khan is not making money, you’ve got another thing coming.”
McCloskey’s gym mate Andy Murray will also be in action on Saturday, when he takes on Blackburn’s Dezzie Higginson, seeking his 24th professional win.
The Cavan lightweight hopes a win would secure him a shot at the European title held by Manchester’s John Murray.
“It’s great to be fighting on such a big card and hopefully it will be a great night for Irish boxing with Paul McCloskey taking on Amir Khan in the main event,” said Murray. “Another Irish fighter, Jamie Kavanagh will also be on the bill so there will be huge Irish support in the MEN Arena and hopefully we can give them something to shout about.
He added: “I’m familiar with Higginson, he turned pro around the same time as me and there was talk of us fighting earlier in my career but it never came off. He’s on a good run of form since joining Ricky Hatton’s stable and he’s won 10 of his last 12. I’m sure he sees this as a big opportunity for him and it’s effectively a home town fight for him so I don’t expect anything easy over there.”
For details of how to access Primetime go to www.primetimelive.co.uk.