Last night at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Paul McCloskey took a unanimous decision over Breidis Prescott in a WBA light welterweight title eliminator with scores of 114-113 twice and 115-113.
Many watching however scored the fight for Prescott, who clearly lost the later rounds when his stamina problems began to surface once again but controlled the early going and scored a knockdown in the first.
Aside from meaning that McCloskey is now the mandatory challenger for the regular version of the WBA light welterweight title held by Marcos Maidana, it also means that Prescott is now unlikely ever to land a rematch against two belt champ Amir Khan, who he finished in one round back at lightweight.
Prescott will ultimately likely continue to call out Khan at every opportunity, and there will forever be those who believe that Khan should avenge his sole loss.
The chances of him ever getting his wish though took a big blow last night since Khan intends on moving up in weight in the near future and has expressed that he would only fight Prescott again if the rankings warranted it.
McCloskey though might now be in line for another bout with Khan, although that might depend on him now going on to beat Marcos Maidana.
Amir Khan said of the fight between his two former opponents:
"Great win for Paul Mccloskey he stuck in there all the way and turned it around he deserved the win well done, my prediction was right"
"McCloskey got great support let's hope he goes all the way and wins a world title, a rematch will be huge, he really impressed me tonight"
The first fight between Khan and McCloskey was a decidedly scrappy affair that saw both fighters struggle to land anything of much consequence, Khan do just enough to win every round, and a cut put a stop to proceedings in the 6th round. It was far from a bout that many would insist needs repeating.
Of course with Khan as the 'super' champion and Marcos Maidana as the regular WBA champion, McCloskey may still have to get past the Argentinian before he can get the rematch Khan mentions.
That being the case Khan may well have moved on by the time McCloskey gets a chance to call him out as a fellow world champion. Not to mention that without the fight happening in his hometown and in against a relentless hard hitter like Maidana, McCloskey's chances would be slim to say the least.
Reg Hollister, Pitt: "McCloskey vs. Khan was a terrible fight, no way a rematch would be huge"
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