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Earlier today we talked about the loss of UK PPV for the April 16 fight between Amir Khan and Paul McCloskey, and now we're starting to see how that's going to affect the headlining fighters. Gareth Davies of the Telegraph reports that Khan could lose £1 million without the pay-per-view boost:
It is understood that Khan's purse could be reduced by around 80 per cent, from £1.25 million to about £250,000. ... McCloskey, the unbeaten European light-welterweight champion, who was believed to be receiving around £200,000 as his purse, is also likely to feel the knock-on effect, with his team seeking to clarify their position. The bottom line with Khan-McCloskey as a pay-per-view event, with all due respect to McCloskey, a seasoned, unbeaten professional, was that the wider sporting public which 'buys into' pay-per-view fight nights, know little or nothing about McCloskey.
Sky's position is pretty clear here, and it's that the main event isn't good enough to sell as a pay-per-view on its own merits, which is a refreshing change of pace from any boxing network, and that an undercard which amounts to very little isn't good enough to prop it up.
Davies says that the Haye-Harrison debacle from November probably had something to do with Sky being proactive in this case and putting their foot down.