By Frank Warren
AMIR KHAN'S preparations for tonight's fight could not have been any worse this week - with the distractions going on behind the scenes with his finances and the broadcasting of his bout.
Sky Sports decided that Khan's light-welterweight defence against Paul McCloskey at the MEN was not worthy of pay-per-view and would only broadcast the bout on Sky Sports 3 at short notice.
This caused Team Khan to walk away and do a deal for pay-per-view on Primetime.
Amir and one of his spokesmen have said he is "a pay-per-view fighter". He may be, but the fact is him against McCloskey with a poor undercard is not a pay-per-view event - that's what the issue is and the problem Team Khan do not seem to understand.
If the main event isn't so strong then you have to beef the card up with quality fights.
I had the same problem when Khan had his last fight with me, his mandatory defence against the out-of-depth Dmitriy Salita.
I argued with Team Khan the amount of money that needed to be spent to ensure a competitive undercard. They disagreed but I insisted and it was a good job I did.
After Salita folded in the first round, the top-quality undercard saved the show.
Why argue the point? Simple, because when boxers promote themselves they cut corners, try and save every penny they can to boost their end of the cut.
It's understandable, but it does nothing for the development of future stars and short changes the public.
I've been asked if James DeGale and George Groves is worthy of a PPV.
They are both unbeaten and I think their intense rivalry sells the fight, but don't forget the main event is a cracking world title showdown between Nathan Cleverly and Jurgen Braehmer with other title bouts.
Pay-per-view was the only way to put this show together. And tickets are going like hot cakes!
Khan's purse will now be a fraction of what he expected. He has lost his Sky guarantee, his Primetime deal is a 50 per cent split of the pay-per-view revenue.
The official line is that ticket sales have been fantastic. But with Man U, Man City and Bolton in FA Cup ties at Wembley this weekend I'd be surprised if they get more than 8,000 at the MEN.
It will be a far cry from the 18,000 fans I got in for Khan's fight with Marco Antonio Barrera there.
I'm sure his purses have been less than I offered him the last three times he has fought. And I can't see things getting much better for him in the summer.
Sky won't be pleased. After all, McCloskey was supposed to be a warm-up fight. Khan was banking on them to show his proposed match-up with Timothy Bradley on PPV in July.
There's now a good chance it will wind up on Primetime again, especially as Sky already have one PPV show late June/early July, with David Haye set to take on Wladimir Klitschko.
The problem here is fighters promoting themselves.
Obviously I would say that. But the common theme with shows put on by the likes of David Haye in his last show, Audley Harrison driving the Beeb out of boxing and now Khan, is that the fans are the ones who miss out on quality undercards.
This week, head of Sky Sports Barney Francis told me boxing was a "headache" to deal with. But the broadcasters should take some responsibility too. They chose to deal direct, in some cases, with unlicensed operators.
And the British Boxing Board of Control should be doing more to prevent unlicensed people getting involved.
In the last week or so, I told Kell Brook I did not want to promote him any more. I was fed up with constantly dealing with his father, rather than Kell himself.
It felt like the situation that led to the breakdown of my relationship with Ricky Hatton.
All the fallout from this week is bound to have had some effect on Khan. But he has operated several levels up from McCloskey for some time now and it would be a major shock if he didn't beat him.
TWO rough, tough fights from Vegas last week on Sky - Marcos Maidana v Erik Morales and Robert Guerrero v Michael Katsidis.
You had to feel for Aussie tough guy Katsidis when he thought to have found a clue in working Guerrero's body in the eighth round.
The referee was a disgrace docking him points, stopping his comeback.
OUT of the mouth of babes! Eddie Hearn this week said "our fighters need a regular platform to showcase their talents headlining on shows on Saturday nights, not on pay-per-view with only a quarter of the audience".
Young Eddie is remembered for his ridiculous hype that Audley Harrison was going to destroy David Haye.
Yes, it was pay-per-view.