McCloskey/Khan row rumbles on
30 January 2011 – Jonny Stapleton
They may not be meeting in the ring but Paul McCloskey and Amir Khan continue to fight outside the squared circle.
The European and World Champions proposed WBA world title fight fell trough over the weekend, but both teams have since traded vicious verbal blows and laid blame on each other for failure to agree a deal for the mouth-watering clash. Both camps have gone to great lengths to attribute culpability on the other for a deal not being signed, as the public fall out continued.
Team Khan have refuted claims they were trying to get the Derry native on the cheap and stressed McCloskey was demanding an astronomical amount for the April bout.
Golden Boys latest superstar, who had a similar if not as public fall out with Lamont Peterson before targeting the Dungiven stylist for his homecoming bout, released a statement via his management claiming McCloskey requested five times his last purse and subsequently priced himself out of a world title tilt. Whilst team McCloskey claim Khans team showed a sever lack of respect with a derisory offer.
The continental ring kings manager Francie McNicholl revealed the offer made was in fact only two times his highest purse, stressed they were willing to meet the options the Bolton native wanted bar one and claimed they continually tried to find a way for the fight to go ahead.
A substantial offer was put to McCloskeys team that would have seen the Irishman receive up to three times the amount he has ever been paid for a fight. Mr McCloskeys promoter asked for a purse over five times the amount he has ever received. Every time Team Khan believed that they were close to agreeing terms with Mr McCloskey, his team would move the goalposts and ultimately their demands were rejected as being unrealistic, Asif Vali, Business Manager of Amir Khan said.
Barry Hearn has out priced his fighter having demanded an astronomical amount despite the fact an excellent offer was put forward to him. The deal put to McCloskey was a great one and looking back on it may be something he will regret. The offer put to McCloskeys team was not totally derisory as Hearn claimed but was a deal that most fighters in his position would jump at, he added before McNicholl hit back for Team McCloskey.
After initial contact had been made with the Khan team we all agreed the contest could happen subject to conditions being agreed, McNicholl said via a statement.
Amir is a great fighter, therefore above all people he knows how tough this sport can be, he also knows the dedication commitment and sacrifices boxers have to make. He should show respect to his fellow professionals and offer them fair purses.
Contrary to Amir Khans teams claims their offer made to Paul was only twice the figure Paul has made before, not 3,4,5,or 6.
As Khan’s team would not negotiate on this low figure. We looked at other ways that could improve the deal on Pauls part to make it worthy of a world title fight, namely commission on Ticket Sales or PPV Sales.
The next requirements of Khan’s team were their three options on Paul if he won the fight. They wanted a rematch where Paul would be paid a cash amount and to promote Pauls next two fights.
On Option one we felt Paul as world champion should receive a 50/50 percentage split of the rematch. We were willing to accept Options Two and Three.
Shah has said they gave in to so many of our demands obviously had they agreed to any of our requests we would not be in this position. We were never going to sell Paul short he is no walkover in the ring and we will make sure he is not outside it either.
