On 4 February 2011, Khan announced a deal had been signed to defend his WBA title against European champion Paul McCloskey in his next fight, who was unbeaten in 22 fights and was ranked world number 10. The fight was scheduled to take place at the MEN Arena on 6 April. Khan won a sixth-round TD after McCloskey was cut by an accidental clash of heads and could not go on in the estimation of the ring doctor. The heads of Khan and McCloskey collided about two minutes into the sixth round, causing a bad cut on the inside of McCloskey's left eyebrow. Another tactical few rounds followed, with Khan the main aggressor. In the decisive sixth, a five-punch combination from Khan staggered McCloskey and moments later the pair went toe-to-toe before McCloskey reeled away and noticed blood coming from around his left eye. Khan had some trouble with the awkward and resilient southpaw, who was difficult to hit cleanly, but he was both too quick and too busy for McCloskey, winning all six rounds on all three cards. Frank Warren stated that the fight's Primetime pay-per-view sold four times as many buys as the network's previous record holder, Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler, which sold 50,000 buys, thus the KhanMcCloskey fight sold about buys. The fight was shown in the US on HBO where it averaged 1.2million viewers.