AMIR KHAN stopped short of calling tomorrow’s WBA title defence against Paul McCloskey a warm-up fight but admits he has one eye on a big summer unification clash with Timothy Bradley.

The Bolton fighter meets Northern Irishman McCloskey at the MEN Arena in Manchester in a voluntary defence which has attracted criticism in some quarters. While Dungiven’s McCloskey is unbeaten and the reigning European champion, he is perceived as a step down in calibre for Khan, whose last fight was a superb win over Argentinian banger Marcos Maidana and who is looking at major names in America next.

Khan is confident those blockbusters will come – starting with WBC and WBO champion Bradley in the summer – but maintains southpaw McCloskey is a credible opponent for his first fight on British soil since December 2009.

“McCloskey wasn’t on my radar until after the Maidana fight,” Khan said. “I wanted the winner of Devon Alexander v Timothy Bradley (which Bradley won in January) but I thought it was too long a gap to wait and that I might as well have a fight in between.

“Looking at the world rankings, McCloskey’s name was there. So I thought ‘why don’t I fight a British guy, from Northern Ireland, who is going to bring a great big following and who people from England know too, instead of an American opponent who nobody knows here?’ So that’s what we chose. You can never take any fight easy. But I think it’s a fight that can take me to bigger and better things.”