I know his PR has always been a bit questionable, but this decision by his advisors really paints him as a tightfisted, money grabbing pudendum.
For me, the biggest flaw in the whole set up is that they air their laundry in public. Constant Twitter wars with journalists, the farce of the Peterson fight falling through over money and so on.
Given that Sky are effectively bankrolling domestic boxing it would be wise to keep them on side. The Khan set up seem to genuinely believe that it's him that's the PPV attraction - not a particular fight or event..... in order for fights to be on PPV you need to either have an intriguing matchup or a stacked bill. This is neither.
Sky did the right thing by taking this off PPV and offering them a slot on regular Sky Sports. So how did the Khan's react?
By immediately dragging McCloskey in and asking him to take a paycut
Then because the money offered to them isn't enough (still substantial it has to be said) they spit the dummy out and go for a fringe PPV channel that has had no experience of putting together a production of it's own - for the Froch fights they've simply used the Showtime feed and had their own commentators.
In fact, this could backfire spectacularly if there aren't enough buys. Primetime will need a certain amount in order to cover their own costs of putting the show together, which, unless the buy rate is right, could leave Amir with less than what he would have got by sticking with Sky. The lack of American TV money doesn't help matters from their side.
There's no exposure to a large audience, no time (crucially) to try to sell the event, and no actual intrigue within it (or the card) to make it compulsive viewing.
Basically, they need to get their heads out of their arses and face facts. Khan is NOT a major draw over here, and should try and build himself. Sure, he seems a nice kid and is entertaining to watch, but is prone to regular gaffes with the mic in his hand which can put people off.
He's lucky that Golden Girl have HBO in their pocket - because otherwise it could all blow up around him, leaving himself with no TV deal and very few fans in his home country.
Ideally, he'd sack everyone around him - his dad, Asif Vali and the other clowns.... and get someone that actually knows what they are doing running the show, whoever that may be.
I know the likes of Laz will defend him even when they know he is wrong, but surely even they can see that this is a major gaffe from ''Team Khan'', and one that probably won't benefit them even in the short term.
I'm surprised Hatton Promotions are associating themselves with the whole charade, I suppose there's too little time remaining for them to do otherwise, the undercard fighters will have been training for several weeks and they won't want to let them down.
The only winner in this is allegedly. It just shows that despite his faults (and there are many) that he's the man when it comes to staging big promotions. He's got the right staff around him, they can always pull a reasonable opponent out of the hat at short notice and the shows are generally good to watch as a whole.
