I have a theory about Khan and his apparent decline in popularity. We started with a humble young teenager who won us silver at the Olympics and endeared himself to the nation. That guy (for all his talent) now seems a distant memory and almost unrecognisable to many as he sometimes comes across as arrogant and disrespectful - the Khan who appeared to treat Graham Earl with contempt at a pre-fight press conference recently springs to mind. I agree his promoters don't appear to do him any favours with the poor statements they put out and one does wonder where he is getting his guidance from sometimes but this still doesn't excuse Khan's own behaviour at times. Sorry if it sounds harsh but to me he does come across like he believes his own hype. He should have stuck with the winning formula outside of the ring - I believe he would then be far more popular than he is now.
This is selective memory at its finest. Before the olympics started and he had under a dozen senior amateur fights, he said he was going to bring back a medal. Isnt that disrespectful to more experineced world class amateurs. what he said to earl at theh press conference was a direct response to earl saying hhe would knock khan out for his birthday, but the real question is why you hold so much store on a pre fight press conference that is designed for promotional stable mates to hype up a fight with faux antagonism to each other. Khan may not be popular on esb, but i guarantee you he is still the housewifes/kids fav boxer in the real world
Well said Stake. I don't see the supposed 'arrogance' he has demonstrated, as you say there are, and have been, far worse examples in the sport. It seems nowadays any semblance of self confidence by Amir will be derided by some on this board as being 'disrespectful' to his opponent. In a sport like boxing it is par for the course to say you are able to beat any possible opponent whether you believe it or not, yey he hasn't exactly been shouting from the rooftops. The other criticism of Khan centres on his choice of opposition. I think it is common knowledge that Khan has limited input in this regard. Whilst his matchmaking has been, shall we say 'steady', it is better to err on the side of caution when selecting opponents for what was a teenager turning pro. He is slowly but surely being moved towards a title shot, yet it seems like people would only be satisfied if he faced Diaz next. He is a young british talent get behind him. :thumbsup
erhum:roll: yeah silver if polished well does look like gold so there you go. anyways i meant to be a olympian compared to a golden glove champion....mitchell rose was a new york golden glove champ atsch for god sake
no dont even say he was "hurt" or "slightly shooked" he was backing up then tripped up on the ****ing SPORTSNETWORK.COM sign and ropes. terrible ref caseing there. the limond knockdown was him getting tagged. then almost piledrivedand chased to the floor. he was hurt defintly but not as bad as people make it out.
No disrespect but this sounds like a typical defensive response from a Khan supporter. Its not me that has a selective memory where Khan is concerned - if you watch the press conference in question (see thread Khan v Earl - The verbals have started) you will see it was Khan that clearly started with the insults and his body language and whole demeanour let him down. I mentioned this as it was recent thats all - its not as if we are short of occasions where Khan has let his arrogance get the better of him. If you think his recent behaviour hasn't had a detrimental effect with the general public you are mistaken. There has been loads of criticism on general (not boxing) websites that have covered his driving offences. I believe these have been damaging to his reputation. Most people don't really identify with someone who appears to have got off relatively lightly with committing a second offence whilst supposedly on bail for breaking a guys leg on a crossing and at one point didn't even bother to turn up to court - like I said before I wonder just who is advising him. I take more than a passing interest in boxing and thats why I post here - most of my friends are what I'd call casual boxing fans in that they only really follow the media personality's such as Hatton and Khan. Whilst Khan is popular with them even they do get embarrassed by his behaviour and outbursts and are becoming less willing to go and watch him fight after parting with hard earned money to travel to some of his bouts where the opponent puts up no challenge whatsoever as in his last two fights.
Ya I know , it's just so many people forget that it was Silver and not Gold he won . Khan is a better fighter than Codrington and will achieve more than him , however there is the real risk Khan could be a Codrington of a higher level .
Man that is bang on ! Khan is the better boxer ( thinmk his chin is less suspect too ! ) but with the Don being "exciting" being bigger and being american he could well enbd up making a ver very nice living for hiomeslf and being the bigger name. To the poster on here who was annoyed by Khans family I used to have a simlair feeling then I remebered how my mum used to carry on when I was playing ice hockey. Maws wll be maws !
Khan gets slammed for his opposition because most top fighters aren't scrutinized this much during the first 3 or 4 years of their careers. They ALL fight bums coming up, it's just most of them aren't fighting on terrestrial TV EVERY TIME OUT! and as for his popularity, his last fight did over 6 million viewers on ITV. That is a huge number. When he actually does step up and possibly fights for a world title, it will be the biggest sports story in Britain.
The viewing figures for his last fight was probably more to do with the Hatton fight being on later than people tuning in to see Khan. I know I stayed in for the Hatton fight and watched Khan because it was on aswell but if there was no main event later on I would have gone out instead.
i'm not totally convinced that the boy has a glass jaw, its neither strong, i'v watched the limond fight a few times, khan got caught by a well timed shot which had him off balance limond capitalised on it and sent him to the canvas, the proceeding shots limond hit khan with after the Knock down were a lot worse then the ones that sent him to the canvas i'd like to add that there have been world class boxer who have been clipped and sparked by lighter hitting opponents. Anothony Mundaine was Ko'd by Ottke several years ago and juddah was put down by cory spinks, both these fighters turned out to have ok chins
