Amir Khan has lost "a big lump sum" by apparently refusing to lower himself to fighting on Sky Sports 3 this Saturday. The WBA light-welterweight champion's defence against Paul McCloskey in Manchester was downgraded from Sky Box Office to the broadcaster's regular subscription channels before Khan confirmed that he will instead appear on the minor pay-per-view station Primetime TV.
It is understood that Sky took the MEN Arena card off box office as a quality control decision, not due to sales figures, after a strong undercard was weakened by withdrawals.
However, Khan's camp were unhappy to be placed on Sky Sports 3 and not 1 or 2, despite the broadcaster apparently explaining that the finer points of such scheduling were out of their hands due to the intricate rights deals involving the likes of Saturday's Real Madrid v Barcelona football match.
It is believed Khan's long-term relationship with Sky is not necessarily damaged and his projected unification bout with American Timothy Bradley later this year could be shown by the broadcaster.
Khan insists preparations have not been affected by the television issue but admits the situation has proved costly.
"This is what happens in boxing," Khan said. "There are going to be times when there are pay cuts, but what drives me is all the training I have done. You know, it's a big lump sum that's been cut but what can you do? That's boxing for you. I'm still young. My job is to get in the ring and fight. I just have to stay focused and bigger paydays will come."
Khan's first fight in England since 2009 will be shown on a channel which has previously supported another British world champion, Carl Froch, despite Primetime being a relatively minor player in the industry.
Khan's business manager Asif Vali denied there was a lack of interest in Saturday's fight against Northern Irishman McCloskey.
He said: "We've had over 300 media accreditation applications. There is huge interest. Fans want to see it. We're hoping for a sell-out at the MEN Arena."
A Sky Sports spokesman said earlier: "Khan v 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 v 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."
McCloskey's promoter, Eddie Hearn, told Gareth Davies of The Telegraph that Khan made a terrible mistake by moving the show from Sky Sports 3 to Primetime pay-per-view with only a week left before the fight.
“This whole thing has been a shambles from start to finish,” Hearn said. “It is commercial suicide. Sky is the most important television station in the UK when it comes to boxing, and in my opinion this has killed Khan’s credibility here.
“I feel sorry for Amir Khan. It was obviously bad news that he had to take a cut in moving from Sky Box Office to Sky Sports 3. He would probably have got 80 to 100,000 pay-per-view buys on Sky Box Office, but he would probably have had 700,000 viewers watching on Sky Sports 3. This was the chance to build him again with a much bigger UK audience. I doubt whether he will even get 5,000 buys on Primetime, which has no marketing budget at all for the event.”