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Khan-McCloskey could be 2011's boxing upset of the year

Written by Ranjit Kumar Tuesday, 19 April 2011 12:59

Several high-profile boxing fights in the last couple of weeks ended in huge upsets. We saw previously undefeated James Kirkland getting knocked out in the first round by soft-punching Japanese Nobuhiro Ishida. The other upsets were previously undefeated Andre Berto's unanimous decision loss against Victor Ortiz who climbed one division to challenge and take Berto's WBC welterweight belt, and Orlando Salido's knockout victory over former WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez who was also formerly undefeated and heavily-favored coming into the fight.

I believe that the biggest upset of the recent fights is European champion Paul McCloskey's loss against a glass-jaw fighter named Amir Khan. The fight was pretty even in all six rounds, and it appeared that Khan was starting to get really tired but the referee stopped the bout because of a small shallow cut over McCloskey's left eye. Honestly, I was so sure that the fight would stink so I decided not to watch it live. However, after hearing the controversial result, I was intrigued to watch the replay. The fight was indeed a stinking one because Khan had a C minus performance.

Aside from Khan fighting a boring fight that wasted the spectators' money and time, the referee added insult to injury by making the ignorant decision to stop the fight. Barry Hearn, McCloskey's promoter was hysterical and was cursing at the referee. Many boxing experts like myself agree that the stoppage was premature and inapproprite. Not only was McCloskey fighting toe-to-toe, but someone who has watched the fight carefully should have seen that Khan was starting to gas out in that sixth round and would have been knocked out in the next couple of rounds.

I was extremely disappointed with the referee, and I think he shouldn't be in any title fights ever again. Even HBO's legendary boxing commentator Larry Merchant couldn't help but express his disdain over the decision. "Stupid stoppage. Maybe the referee and the doctor thought they were invited to a wine testing," Merchant said, and I absolutely concur with him.

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