Amir Khan vs. Paul McCloskey

Amir Khan vs. Paul McCloskey was a 140-pound world title fight, that was aired on HBO's Boxing After Dark,[1] as part of an HBO-televised split-site double-header, which also included WBC Welterweight Championship fight, Andre Berto vs. Victor Ortiz.[2] Following on from Khan's successful title defence against Marcos Maidana, Champion Amir returned to Manchester to continue his title defence against EBU Super Lightweight Champion Paul McCloskey at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

King Khan Returns
Date16 April 2011
VenueM.E.N. Arena, Manchester, United Kingdom
Title(s) on the lineWBA Light Welterweight Title
Tale of the tape
Boxer Amir Khan Paul McCloskey
Nickname King Khan Dudey
Hometown Bolton, Greater Manchester Derry, Northern Ireland
Pre-fight record 24–1 (17 KO's) 22–0 (12 KO's)
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) 5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Recognition WBA
Light Welterweight Champion		 WBA
No. 4 Ranked Light Welterweight
Result
Khan defeats McCloskey by Technical Decision

Build-up

Khan survived a brutal late onslaught from Marcos Maidana to retain his WBA light-welterweight title on December 2010. It was looking like an easy night's work in round one. Khan dropped Maidana with a vicious left to the body that had the Argentinian writhing in agony. During round 10, was where that Maidana had much of his success, threading huge uppercuts through his tight guard and ripping shots to his ribs on both flanks in a vain effort to bring his gloves down. He won the bout unanimous decision. Khan had two 10–8 rounds, the first and the fifth, when the referee Joe Cortez docked Maidana a point for elbowing on the break.[3]

McCloskey produced a classy European light-welterweight title defence as he stopped Scotland's Barry Morrison in seven rounds. The Dungiven man picked off Morrison in the opening rounds in Letterkenny and then put the ex-British champion on the canvas with a big right in the fifth. Morrison tried to get McCloskey involved in a brawl but the end came after another knockdown in the seventh. It was McCloskey's second defence of his title and his 22nd straight win. Morrison had no answer to McCloskey's fast hands and the Derry man showed punching power as well with his right hook in the fifth which caught the Scot flush on the temple.[4]

The fight

The fight started with Khan as the main aggressor with little changing for five rounds. McCloskey evaded a lot of Khan's punches with superb upper body movement but he was not throwing enough punches to win rounds. In the decisive sixth Khan staggered McCloskey and moments later the pair went toe-to-toe, clashing heads as Khan came in for a right hand, McCloskey and Khan both stopped and the referee intervened. The fight was then stopped because of a cut to McCloskey's left eye.[5]

Khan had some trouble with an awkward and resilient southpaw, who was difficult to hit cleanly, however, he ended up winning all six rounds on all three cards.[6]

There is some controversy over the stoppage, with The Independent's Steve Bunce questioning the doctor's reason for entering the ring

Undercard

Televised

Preliminary card
  • Super Bantamweight bout: Rendall Munroe vs. Andrei Isaeu
    • Munroe defeats Isaeu by unanimous decision. (116–112, 115–114, 117–112)
  • Lightweight bout: Graeme Higginson vs. Andy Murray
    • Murray defeated Higginson by points.
  • Heavyweight bout: Richard Towers vs. Raman Sukhaterin
    • Towers defeats Sukhaterin by RTD. The fight was stopped at the end of round four.
  • Super Bantamweight bout: Kid Galahad vs. Dai Davies
    • Galahad defeated Davies by points.
  • Bantamweight bout: Tasif Khan vs. Pavels Senkovs
    • Khan defeated Senkovs by points.

International broadcasting
Country Broadcaster
Latin AmericaSpace[7]
 CanadaHBO Canada/TSN
 PhilippinesTV5/IBC
 United KingdomPrimetime
 United StatesHBO

References
  1. Rafael, Dan (5 February 2011). "Amir Khan to face Paul McCloskey". ESPN. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  2. Satterfield, Lem (19 January 2011). "Andre Berto-Victor Ortiz 'Promising' for Amir Khan April 16 Card". AolNews. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  3. Mitchell, Kevin (12 December 2011). "Amir Khan beats Marcos Maidana to retain WBA light-welterweight title". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
  4. "Classy Paul McCloskey beat Barry Morrison in Euro bout". BBC. 2 October 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
  5. "Amir Khan keeps WBA title". ESPN. 16 April 2011. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  6. Sukachev, Alexey (16 April 2011). "Amir Khan Gets Technical Nod Over Paul Mccloskey Six". BoxingScene. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  7. "Berto-Ortiz/Khan-McCloskey en Space". NotiFight. 12 April 2011.
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