By James Slater: A number of fans, especially those who wanted to see him go in for a second time with the only man to have KO’d him, were disappointed when WBA 140-pound champ Amir Khan announced he would be facing Paul McCloskey in his next fight. It’s not that the unbeaten 31-year-old warrior from Northern Ireland, who happens to be a southpaw, is a poor fighter; it’s just that a good number of fans wanted to see if Khan could extract revenge over the only man to have knocked him silly – Colombia’s Breidis Prescott.
The 27-year-old, who has won three and lost two since obliterating Khan in 2008, has been doing everything he can to entice Khan into taking a return fight with him – but the 24-year-old star has displayed no interest whatsoever. Claiming Prescott has “disappeared from his radar,” Khan insists he has much bigger fish to fry. For the moment, anyway.
Because, Dan Rafael – one of the biggest names from the writing side of the sport who also craves seeing a rematch between Khan and Prescott – called up Khan recently, speaking with him about the rematch so many people want to see. And guess what? It appears as though Prescott hasn’t done the disappearing job Khan recently said he has after all.
Khan said he WILL fight his sole pro conqueror in time: when he himself is the top dog at 140-pounds and there is no-one else to fight.
“I’d love to fight Prescott again and it’s a fight the fans want to see as well,” Khan told The ESPN.com scribe. “I promise you that the fight will definitely happen. But this [my April 16th fight] is about what makes sense for me for this fight. I think you give Prescott another one or two wins and when I beat him I don’t want any excuses from his team. I think it will happen after I fight Bradley.”
Khan said recently that he doesn’t want to beat Prescott while he is coming off a couple of losses (to Miguel Vazquez and Kevin Mitchell, both points defeats). The WBA boss said he would like to gain his revenge over a formidable-looking Prescott instead. Fair enough, and if Prescott can keep a clean sheet from here on in, the return fight does happen it seems. Khan has, after all, promised it will!
“As soon as I unify the [light-welterweight] division the Prescott fight can happen,” Khan said. “After I beat Bradley there will be nobody left. Then I will fight Prescott again and [then] move up to 147.”
So, Khan clearly feels he will get past the unbeaten McCloskey on April 16th, then fight and defeat WBC/WBO 140-pound belt-holder Bradley after that – before moving on to fight a revenge fight with Prescott. It sure sounds like a good plan, but can Khan defeat Bradley?
Khan said he is willing to go to America once again for the potentially huge Bradley fight, but that he would prefer it to be in England. If Khan can beat Bradley (becoming the first man to have done so), will he really keep his promise and take that return with Prescott? A good number of fans, writers, commentators, experts and fans really do hope so!