No Khan do?

Khan’s representatives made contact with Francie McNicholl, Dudey’s manager, about the possibility of a rematch between the two light-welterweight title hopefuls on the back of McCloskey’s convincing performance in a bout with tough Latin fighter Manuel Perez.

Mr McNicholl expressed hope that ‘Dudey’ would get the chance to make amends after the world title bout between the two fighters last year was ended prematurely because of a tiny, insignificant looking cut to McCloskey’s brow.

A possible contest had been mooted for this December, but Khan’s camp has now announced a different opponent in the unbeaten Carlos Molina, a fight due to take place in the United States.

Khan’s father Shah told the Sentinel that despite a December match up between his son Amir and Dungiven man Paul McCloskey falling through, he would not rule out a future bout between the two light-welterweight title hopefuls.

“It is still a possibility for the future”, said Shah Khan, “It was absolutely a fight that Amir might have kept with Paul if the fight was in the UK, no problem, but because he is in America we have a Mexican opponent instead.

“Paul had a good win behind him so that’s why we made contact and we wanted to talk about a fight with him.”

Dudey put in a convincing performance in his last outing, when he comprehensively out-pointed his tough Mexican-American opponent Manuel Perez at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.

Khan is coming off the back of two straight defeats, his last fight ending with a brutal knockout at the hands of the hitherto unfancied Danny Garcia.

Asked whether he felt Amir had unfinished business to attend to with Paul McCloskey because of the controversial nature of the stoppage during their world title contest last year, Amir Khan’s father Shah said: “Amir was dominating that fight. The referee stopped it but if the fight had carried on Amir would still have won, there is no doubt about it.”