Amir Khan’s defence of his WBA light-welterweight crown will now be shown by pay-per-view channel Primetime, following a dispute between the British boxer’s promoter and Sky Sports over scheduling.
Primetime picked up the rights to the fight on Monday, after a row between Khan’s promoter, Golden Boy, and Sky resulted in the broadcaster pulling the entire M.E.N bill from its schedules.
The pay-per-view channel, dedicated to combat sports, has announced that it will screen Khan’s world title fight against McCloskey, and the following undercard bouts:
Martin Murray v Anderson Carvalho – (WBA middleweight interim title)
Rendall Munroe v Andrei Isaeu – (Super bantamweight interim title)
Craig Watson v Lee Purdy – (British welterweight title)
Coverage begins on Saturday at 8pm from the M.E.N Arena, with presenters and commentators to be announced shortly.
The fight can be ordered as a one-off purchase for £14.95 via Virgin Media ‘on-demand’, Sky and online at www.primetimelive.co.uk. Sky customers must register on their website first to order the fight, and once registered they can purchase using the ‘Box Office’ menu.
Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, said: “There is no doubt that Amir is boxing’s next true superstar and, as a world champion, is a fighter that now commands pay-per-view billing.
“In McCloskey, he faces a fighter who has never tasted defeat and will give it his all in order to be crowned champion.
“We are pleased that an agreement has been reached with Primetime to provide UK fans with an outlet to watch the homecoming of one of the fight game’s brightest rising stars.
Primetime (Sky channel 480) is a dedicated combat sports channel which has shown a number of live world title fights including those of British star and current WBC world super middleweight champion Carl Froch.
‘Commercial Suicide’
Many within the press have speculated that this very public fallout has been ‘commercial suicide’ for Khan, and that it has damaged any future relationship between the boxer and Sky.
Saj Mohamed, a member of ‘Team Khan’ and one of the Bolton boxer’s closest friends, gave an insight into the whole dispute on Monday by telling his 4,000 followers on Twitter that Sky were not interested in screening Khan’s projected unification bout with American Timothy Bradley later this year, and any future fights.
Khan’s fight with European champion Paul McCloskey in Manchester this Saturday night was due to be screened on Sky Box Office.
But it is understood that Sky took the fight off Box Office as a quality control decision, not due to sales figures, after a strong undercard was weakened by withdrawals.
The fight was moved to Sky Sports 3, but Khan’s camp were unhappy with this decision, claiming that they stood to lose millions now that it wasn’t a PPV offering, and that their man should at least be either Sky Sports 1 or 2.
The broadcaster explained that they unable to accomodate the promoter’s demands, stating that the finer points of such scheduling were out of their hands due to the intricate rights deals.
On Saturday night, Sky Sports 1 is showing the La Liga match between Real Madrid v Barcelona, whilst Football First Premier League highlights have to been shown on Sky Sports 2 for contractual reasons, leaving only Sky Sports 3 available for the fight.
Khan’s team declined Sky’s offer and the broadcaster pulled the fight from its schedules, leaving Primetime to pick up the pieces from the dispute by buying the rights to the fight on Saturday.
It is thought that Golden Boy initially approached ITV to show the fight, but they refused to take the fight at such short notice due to scheduling issues.
On Sunday night, Sky Sports confirmed: “Khan vs McCloskey will not be shown on Sky Box Office or any of the Sky Sports channels as it has not proved possible to reach an agreement on TV scheduling.
“Financial terms were agreed and a solution was offered for the fight to appear on Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports HD3 following the decision not to broadcast on Sky Box Office. It was not accepted.
“The Khan vs McCloskey bill had been announced as a Sky Box Office event two months ago. Since then there were several changes to the bill so we made the decision – before the main promotional campaign started and Sky customers booked the event – to give it to Sky Sports viewers.”
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