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Amir Khan promotion dubbed a “shambles”

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

April 15, 2011 | 2 min read

Eddie Hearn, promoter of Amir Khan’s challenger for the World Boxing Association light welterweight belt this Saturday in Manchester, has called the promotion of the event a “shambles”.

Khan’s title defence was due to have been a £14.95 pay-per-view event on Sky, but this was subsequently downgraded to a free slot on Sky Sports 3 by the broadcaster.

Unhappy at this Khan’s promoters elected to switch to Primetime, a switch which will reduce the audience for the match to around 10,000 paying viewers, as opposed to an audience of around 700,000 who would have tuned in on Sky.

Hearn said: “The move [to Primetime] from Khan and his team is commercial suicide. What has been done has probably killed Amir's credibility in the UK – certainly [with] our leading sports broadcaster."

The decision, Hearn believes, has cost Khan £1.5m in lost revenue and will see his fighter, Paul McCloskey, earn more from the fight than Khan himself.

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