By Terence Dooley
Paul McCloskey’s team may have to find another route back to contention for their man following his six round TD defeat to WBA light-welterweight title holder Amir Khan. McCloskey was pulled from the fight at 2:30 of the round after an accidental clash of heads opened up a cut on his brow.
Paul left the MEN Arena with his dreams in tatters and sans his EBU title belt as EBU rule 13.1 states that a champion must be stripped of the title ‘If he is beaten in a contest within the limits of the division’. Giuseppe Lauri and Denis Shafikov occupy the two vacant challenger spots in the EBU’s latest rankings and are likely to be paired off for the belt, with McCloskey the #1 challenger when the title’s destiny is settled.
McCloskey KO’d Lauri in the eleventh round during last June’s EBU title fight. The Italian, though, went onto post a massive first round win over Gabor Nagy, 0-1 at the time, to earn his shot at the belt. Shafikov is currently 26-0-1 (15); the 25-year-old Russian drew against Brunet Zamora in October of last year but netted a big TKO win over Nugzar Margvelashvili, then 18-9 (7), in March to earn his EBU shot.
Ironically, the deposed champion’s TD loss to Khan shows better form than the two wins scored by Lauri and Shafikov yet rules are rules and the EBU title is now likely to be contested by Lauri and Gabor, with McCloskey waiting in the wings as he bids to rebuild towards another world title shot.
Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk