Reports from the UK indicate that Saturday night’s world title defense by Amir Khan against undefeated but lightly-regarded Irishman Paul “Dudley” McCloskey is going to be seen by very few eyeballs.
The TV situation is all balled up with limited viewing network Premiere now carrying Khan’s fight from Manchester to the rest of the country.
Call it pay per few with some reports indicating they might be lucky to get 5,000 buys for the stay busy bout for the Freddie Roach-trained Khan. (Premiere has taken Carl Froch bouts when the bigger networks rejected them.)
Word is that Khan is taking a one million GBP financial hit for the television confusion.
(HBO carries Mccloskey-Khan as a taped appetizer prior to screening Vicious Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto live from Connecticut.)
The fallout has been all bad what with Sky Sports trying to relegate McCloskey-Khan to lower tier Sky Sports 3 and using a flimsy excuse about an undercard bout featruing Matthew Macklin and Khoren Gevor and then one between UK heavyweight Tyson Fury and Lennox Lewis conqueror Hasim Rahman being scratched. Advertisement
Rahman nixed the bout on what he said was two week’s notice.
But there is some sunshine for Kid Khan and his motley crew. It’s gone virtually unnoticed but I, for one, am impressed in hearing that about 15,000 tickets have been sold at the MEN Arena.
Say what you want about Khan, he moves tickets in the UK despite not fighting there since 2009.
But what’s really impressive is the fact that 5:15 p.m. pn fight day a sporting event which will make the streets of big city Manchester look like a ghost town will be on TV.
Crosstown football rivals Manchester United and Manchester City get it on at Wembley Stadium in London in the FA Cup match.
So for Khan to peddle 15,000 tickets would roughly be akin to, let’s say, Paulie Malignaggi selling that many at Madison Square the same night as the Yankees and Mets are locking horns.
McCloskey, who is 22-0 with 17 KOs, is a heavy underdog against 24-1, 17 KOs Khan.
Coach Roach will rush back to Los Angeles to return to Manny Pacquiao on Sunday morning.
