McCloskey: I’ll be untouchable on Saturday

By Jonny Stapleton

‘You can look but you can’t touch’ was the message Paul McCloskey gave Breidis Prescott at the final press conference ahead of the pairs WBA world title eliminator in the Odyssey Arena on Saturday night.

The Columbian has been doing his best to goad the Derry man into a fight over the last couple of weeks and the noted knock out specialist again tried to persuade McCloskey to brawl rather than box this weekend.

The only fighter to defeat Amir Khan pleaded with the former European Champion not to run and hide yesterday and told the Derry stylist to show the fighting Irish spirit in their mega bout.

Renowned stylist McCloskey, certainly won’t go toe to toe with South American, but did stress he won’t be bringing his bicycle-as Prescott suggested in the Mirror this week- and will certainly not be running.

However, despite revealing he will be in sight and full range of Prescott ‘Dudey’ revealed he will still be untouchable.

The slick southpaw said he will slip Prescotts bombs and follow the blueprint Kevin Mitchell used to beat the Khanqueror this Saturday night.

 

 

 

“All this bicycle talk is a bit of psychological war fare to try and get me stand and go to war with him. I won

’t be doing that but I will put on a show trust me. I won’t be hiding though. He will be able to see me. I will stay pretty close, but I will make him miss and I will punish him at the same time. That is what Kevin Mitchell did and he won almost every round against Prescott.”

Both Prescott and McCloskey, who top a bill that includes a Commonwealth title fight for Carl Frampton as well as clashes for Marc McCullough, Eamonn O’Kane and Dee Tagart,  have Khan lineage and the Golden Boy fighter did get his obligatory ten mentions at yesterday’s press conference.

The John Breen trained 32 year old however, is adamant his dust up with fellow light welterweight top 10 resident, Prescott is about securing a world title shot and has nothing to do with a Khan return.

 

 

 

“I don’t care about Amir Khan. I just want to be a world champion. Even when I fought Khan it was about becoming world champion. It was a massive opportunity. Now its just about being champion of the world I don’t care who I have to fight to achieve that. I am in the position where I am one of the top fighters in the division and it is nice to be in that position. It took a lot of hard work, time and dedication to get here.” McCloskey added.

Eddie Hearn guaranteed McCloskey a world title fight if he wins on Saturday and McCloskey is excited about the possibility of facing WBA world champion Marcos Maidana in Belfast.

“I haven’t checked my Twitter yet,” McCloskey joked referring to a story in yesterdays Mirror.  “Maidana was in personal touch with us a while back. He respects me as a fighter and I respect him. I think he is a great fight but he is average enough ability wise. He does carry one hell of a dig just like this guy I am fighting Saturday night. I would love to get a world title fight with Maidana in Ireland. The fact he is even saying he would come here is a massive boost.”