PAUL MCCLOSKEY HAS rubbished suggestions that Amir Khan is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world at present, claiming that he made the WBA Super-Lightweight Champion look “pretty average” during their fight on Saturday evening.

Referee Luis Pabon and ringside doctor Fraser Pinkney ordered the bout to be stopped after just six rounds when an accidental clash of heads left McCloskey with a nasty looking gash above his right eye. The fight was decided by the ringside judges who unanimously awarded all six rounds to the defending champion.

Though McCloskey’s camp were furious with the premature stoppage and have lodged an official complaint with boxing’s authorities, Khan has already started to plot his next move, eyeing up a divisional reunification contest with American Timothy Bradley before taking on stablemate Manny Pacquiao, the man currently regarded by many as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Speaking to Newstalk’s Off The Ball last night, the Dungiven man laughed off suggestions that Khan could even be considered in the same class, saying that the Briton had done nothing of note during their six rounds in the ring together.

“Anybody with a brain or anybody who knows anything about boxing knows that those six rounds were pretty close,” McClosksey said.

I made Amir Khan who has been recognised as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world look pretty average and pretty ordinary. He was doing no damage to me whatsoever.

Describing himself as “completely gutted” and “mesmerised” by Saturday night’s events, the previously-undefeated 31-year-old said that his plan was to let Khan tire himself out as he sought to score an early and impressive knockout in front of the British crowd.

“To be fair, I was behind on points but we had a bit of a gameplan,” McCloskey said. “We knew he was going to come out early on and try to blast me away because he was trying to impress the crowd and he’d a bit of job to do.”

“I could feel the difference even in the number of punches that were coming my way. The number of punches per round were coming down, he wasn’t making me work as much, so we were going to up the tempo in the second half of the fight.”

Listen to McCloskey’s on Off The Ball (audio courtesy of Newstalk) >

The Northerner also dismissed Khan’s suggestion that a knockout was imminent had the bout not been waved off as post-fight bluster, saying “talk’s cheap at that stage.”

He said that at the press conference, but to be honest anything I put to him at the press conference, he couldn’t answer me back.

He’s very good at talking the talk once the event’s over, but he was quiet before the fight and up to that point.

Although he conceded that the chances of Khan agreeing to rematch were “slim,” McCloskey said that the manner in which the fight ended has done his future prospects no harm at all.

“To come out of the fight the way I did, it does my ranking no harm. I’m still highly ranked, and I’ve no doubt that I’ll be back fighting for a title in the very near future – if not this title then another one.”

McCloskey rages after “shameful” stoppage denies him title shot >