Khan retains against McCloskey, targets Tim Bradley next

WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan retained his title earlier tonight at the M.E.N arena in Manchester, England with a six round technical decision victory over challenger Paul McCloskey.

After what was shaping up to be an interesting bout despite the champion winning the first five rounds comfortably, the fight was halted following an unintentional clash of heads in the sixth.

Referee Luis Pabon consulted the ringside doctor who halted the fight, apparently concerned that the cut, which was over the top of McCloskey’s left eye would affect his vision.

Naturally McCloskey and his team were far from happy with the decision, and promoter Barry Hearn demanded a rematch at the post fight press conference calling the decision to end the fight a disgrace.

Khan quickly dismissed this idea, rightly stating that he had won every single round on all three judges scorecards and that it didn’t look as if McCloskey was about to turn it around.

“I was hurting him, I wasn’t tired, and I promise if it had gone two more rounds he would have been knocked out”

McCloskley also claimed in the post fight interview that Khan was tiring as the fight went on, and that the champion struggled to make weight.

Neither of which were readily apparent from the fight, and if anything Khan seemed to be landing more cleanly as the rounds went on.

Despite winning the rounds however, Khan didn’t land as much as he would have liked against McCloskey who he struggled to catch cleanly, particularly in the early rounds.

Also to be fair to McCloskey, the cut didn’t look to be that bad and wasn’t yet affecting his vision. The cut was bleeding freely, but looked to be running along Mccloskey’s nose rather than into his eye.

To be fair to Amir Khan as well however, granting a rematch would serve little purpose given his aspirations of unifying the light welterweight division and then moving up in weight. Particularly given that he took such a financial hit in moving the fight from Sky Sports to Primetime.

Khan is now expected to begin negotiations for a unification bout with WBC/WBO champion Tim Bradley.

Whether or not the fight will be broadcast on Sky Sports is not yet clear.

Sky’s decision not to allow Khan vs. McClosley as a pay per view in hindsight looks justified, and had the fight not been ended on a cut, this would still likely be the case.

Tim Stephens, Bolton: “Khan looked sloppy but he was still much better than McCloskey will ever be, no need for a rematch”

Edgar Mackens, Pitt: “McCloskey was hard to hit because of his stance, but that was about it, he wasn’t landing enough to look like winning a round”