Date April 16, 2011 24-1-0 (17 KO's) 22-0-0 (12 KO's) | King Khan Dudey | |
Venue M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, United Kingdom Title(s) on the line WBA Light Welterweight Title. Bolton, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Derry, Northern Ireland | ||
Amir Khan vs. Paul McCloskey was a 140-pound world title fight, that was aired on HBO's Boxing After Dark, as part of an HBO-televised split-site double-header, which also included WBC Welterweight Championship fight, Andre Berto vs. Victor Ortiz. Following on from Khan's successful title defense against Marcos Maidana, Champion Amir returned to Manchester to continue his title defense against EBU Super Lightweight Champion Paul McCloskey at the Manchester Evening News Arena.
Contents
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.
McCloskey produced a classy European light-welterweight title defense 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 defense 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.
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.
Khan had some trouble with an awkward and resilient southpaw, who was difficult to hit cleanly, winning all six rounds on all three cards.
There is some controversy over the stoppage, with The Independent's Steve Bunce questioning the doctor's reason for entering the ring