Amir Khan has a talent that deserves celebration in Britain - and yet in the popularity stakes the fast and furious fighter from Bolton is found wanting.
That is a shame, for his swift disposal of crafty and dangerous veteran Zab Judah was a wonderful showcase of his speedy combinations and growing ability at the age of just 24.
There are many factors - some explained, some unexplained - as to why Khan does not get the thousands upon thousands of fans splashing their savings on trips across the pond in the same way Ricky Hatton did.
Arguably Khan is much more talented proposition in the ring and he's beginning to build a record that could match up to Hatton's - Andriy Kotelnik, Paulie Malignaggi, Marcos Maidana and Judah have all been world champions - although he lacks a name like Kostya Tszyu.
It's fair to say a lot of the problems stem from an out-of-the-ring persona. Some of this is fair and some of it grossly unfair.
Starting with the latter, there have been accusations of racism against a fighter of Pakistani heritage. This is a not unreasonable point and there's no doubting elements of prejudice among some, a small minority, exist.
Moving on other reasons why Khan does not attract the popularity he deserves and it's worth considering the way Khan has conducted himself - or perhaps more importantly, how 'Team Khan' have conducted themselves.
There's no shame in trying to make a decent living from an unforgiving sport but the way in which Khan Promotions cut themselves off from Sky TV before the Paul McCloskey fight was shameful. Originally scheduled for Sky's Pay-Per-View, there had been suggestions that Khan Promotions were unwilling to pay a decent wage to fighters for the undercard on the bill. Whether this was true or not remains unclear but a number of decent boxers dropped out beforehand and we were left with a fight night that was not worth paying around £15 for to see on TV.
Sky were quick to acknowledge this fact and refused to put the broadcase on pay-per-view - a relief for fight fans suffering cash flow issues in the times of a credit crunch.
'Team Khan' thought otherwise and decided to stick the McCloskey bout on Primetime, which is a little-known pay-per-view satellite station in the UK. It left a bad taste. If you're going to make fight fans pay for something, at least have something worth paying for.
Then in the aftermath of this contest there was more bad feeling as Khan and his entourage taunted McCloskey in a bad-tempered post-fight press conference, who despite being soundly behind was ludicrously stopped halfway through with a paper-thin cut.
Khan's message was: "Shut up, listen to the champion, he's talking." Or words to that effect.
Since that fight Khan and his team have refused to do business with Sky and the Judah fight was left somewhere in space for British fight fans - or a channel known as Primetime, where it costs about £15 to see the show on TV. Worse still, there were complaints that Primetime's internet broadcast was shaky and grainy and slow.
But despite the perceived attitude and arrogance, Khan has something special and deserves respect for the way he his career has soared after teaming up with Freddie Roach. When they first got together Khan was picking up the pieces of a reputation smashed in one round by Breidis Prescott.
Khan was humble to go to a gym where he would start lower down the pecking order with a lot to prove. He got his head down and is on course to be recognised as a British boxer worthy of acclaim in the history books.
Being humble helps with the British. Can Amir Khan achieve stardom - and have popularity in the UK at the same time? That question has not been resolved.
No comments:
Post a Comment