Filed under: Boxing
Paul McCloskey's promoter Eddie Hearn called Amir Khan's team's decision to move the WBA light-welterweight clash between the pair to fringe pay-per-view channel Primetime "commercial suicide" and, while it may be an extreme description, he could be proved right.After Sky decided to offer Khan's defence against McCloskey to their normal subscribers on Sky Sports 3 at no extra cost instead of Box Office because of a less than impressive undercard, Khan's team were not happy as their fighter stood to lose £1 million.
They quickly looked to other UK broadcasters and, with limited options, they have agreed to show the fight on combat sports channel Primetime at the same price of £14.95.
However, the problem lies with the popularity of Primetime and whether or not they can, with very little time, drum up enough interest to earn a substantial profit from showing the event on April 16 at the MEN Arena.
While sticking with Sky would, more than likely, have displayed Khan to a much larger audience and increased his UK following even further, the WBA champion's team insisted that their man is a pay-per-view fighter, especially since his last outing was a rip-roaring affair with Marcos Maidana.
However, it's a huge gamble as they risk alienating the Bolton man's fans and sponsors who, because of its regular boxing content, are loyal to Sky and may be put off by the change of channel.
Whether Khan Promotions will stick with Primetime in the future remains to be seen and Asif Vali, the Bolton fighter's adviser, insisted they are not looking past Saturday night's event.
He said: "As far as the future goes with Sky, I have no answers. We are happy with Primetime. If he (Hearn) said it (about commercial suicide) that is down to him, but we are happy with Primetime for this fight."
Nevertheless, there's still a defence for Khan to focus on and the Bolton man insists he has steered clear of the legal wrangling of the last few days and has kept his mind on the job in hand which is holding on to his WBA title.
Khan said: "I've left it with my management team to sort out what channel it's going to be on but I knew the fight was going to be on all the time.
"I've always been in the limelight and you always get these ups and downs in training camps, even on big shows. I'm 100 per cent focused on what my job is.
"I always train hard, there wasn't one day that the fight was going to be off. I've stayed out of it (the TV debate), I was training very hard and I just kept on doing what I had to do."
The 24-year-old still faces losing most of his purse for the fight despite the switch back to pay-per-view, but he is just happy that the fight will be screened on TV for his UK fans.
"A big sum has been cut, but I'm still young, and my job is to get in the ring and fight. I want to build my career up in the US, as well as in England. I wanted to give my loyal fans a chance to see me fight in England."
McCloskey's promotional team, Matchroom Sport, have apparently kept the Northern Irishman totally in the dark about the recent disruptions to keep him focused on the biggest night of his career.
And while Khan may insist he hasn't been bothered by it all, it's certainly not the ideal preparation for what could be a tricky encounter on Saturday night.
Khan needs to perform to beat McCloskey and he'll have to put on a box office display to prove to his doubters that he's worth paying for in future.
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