Khan’t be serious!

A MISERABLE purse offer and ‘King Khan’s’ insistence on controlling Paul McCloskey’s next two fights in the event of a second career defeat at the hands of the Dungiven man scuppered a potential world title clash between the pair in Manchester in April.

Talks collapsed last week after the McCloskey and Khan camps failed to agree terms on a highly anticpated clash at the MEN on April 16.

The breakdown hinged on Khan’s refusal to improve on a thrifty initial purse offer that - though twice what McCloskey received for his last EBU defence against Barry Morrison - was a mere fraction of what would be normally expected for a world title challenge.

It also emerged Khan was seemingly preparing for life as a former world champion insisting on three options in the event of a McCloskey win including a rematch for which the would-be new WBA belt-holder would have been be paid just 2.5 times the amount he got for defeating Barry Morrison last year.

Khan also wanted to promote McCloskey’s subsequent two fights taking a percentage in each case.

Talks broke down on the purse offer for the rematch; Mr McNicholl felt that “Paul as world champion should receive a 50/50 percentage split of the rematch.

“The cash amount offered was only equal to what we asked for in the first fight. We were willing to accept. options two and three.”