oh wait, cos hes aisan right. No i think certainly the people on here have a problem with him because his sucess, not race. some do yes, but not most.
Damn, don't like being controversial but i don't think he'd feeling a lot of heat he gets if he was white :barf
Just to clarify that I havent conducted an empirical study or anything, and I don't hang around with a bunch of racists... It's just a feeling i get from my own friends and environment. Nothing more. I'm from the States living in the UK, btw, and it's not too different there either. I don't believe it's conscious racism for the MOST part, btw, but people do tend to be able to relate more (or hold more sympathetic views towards) someone who is of their own race. I know it's not enough to paint an entire picture but it's just something i've observed particularly with Khan after watching his fights against Limond and Earl at a pub. I've been surrounded by 'issues' of race all my life being of mixed heritage myself and it's just an observation more than anyhting.
I think it's a shame when a decent hugging/hating thread gets derailed by talk of racism. Part of it stems (in my opinion) from the fact that a lot of Amir's fans are simply Amir Khan fans as opposed to hardcore boxing fans. Now this is not a bad thing, but because a lot of them don't know any different they fall for all the media hype and believe Khan is the best thing ever. When they come here they can't believe that not everybody shares their point of view. The only conclusion they come to is is that it must be to do with his ethnic background. Reducing threads to this sort of **** is bad form.
My thoughts too only you put it so much more eloquently Claypole. Not the first time a Khan thread has resorted to this which is a bit of an insult to those of us who post here and are genuine boxing fans who can see beyond a fighters colour or background when making valid criticism.
Theres gotta be starting point for new fans and hes bringing lots of them and inspiring fighters from amatuer boxing to pro boxing.
I was and sorta still am , pro khan , however last couple months iv lost alot of respect for him , i think he should be brought along at a steady pace and taught the ropes so to speak. However if thats what his managment and his camp are thinking then dont let him call out fighters like thaxton and then chicken out. In my oppinion that was disgraceful and i think hes going from being a humble fighter into a big headed twat very quickly which is a shame.
Below is a copy of one of my own posts from another thread. http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39748&page=3 It's dissapointing because after the olympics so many people, including myself, were saying good things about him. My sister, whos not big on boxing, was amazed at how good Khan was at the olympics & the whole thing made for a good story. He then said he was going to ply his trade for another four years & hopefully win a gold medal at the next olympics. The Warren jugernaut loomed ominously though & it seemed unlikely the kid from Bolton would resist. He didnt & suddenly everything changed, instead of being the kid who won silver he was Amir, the politically correct British supestar who was going to save British boxing. The one sided coverage from ITV has been pathetic, they have just been an extension of Warren's PR department. Even Sky were bold enough to openly criticise Warren & I believe thats part of the reason he moved on. ITV will leave him to get on with fooling the less knowing British public into thinking Khan is fighting legitimate opponents & winning legitimate titles. Boxing's finally being brought back to the masses but, like the BBC did with Audley, they are pinning all their hopes on the Amir. I believe this is the wrong way to go about doing things & is simply putting British boxing at the mercy of Sports Network. Meanwhile we have Khan, who is nothing more than a contender, enjoying the trappings only an elite athlete should.
Im still a khan fan , and holding out hope , however i do agree mostly with the above, and if things carry on i can see myself hating him or what he may become. Agreed especially about itvs coverage, its a hard subject , because of coverage like theyve shown boxing has made a comeback last couple years (07 especially) however at what cost? I dont want it if its a watered down , manufactured , frank warren controlled sport (here anyways). Suppose well just have to wait and see.
Dan im gonna agree with you on something at last. ITV's coverage is totally bias and one sided, Barry McGuigan I would hope would mention his chin but it doesn't happen, at the end of they day its all down the the money isn't it. I don't agree with your opinion that Khan should have stayed amateur and gone to the next Olympics. Firstly he could have got injured a week before the Olympics and would have wasted 4 years. 2nd he beat Kindalin who wa the number 1 fighter in his amateur division so he had nothing else to proove. Warren moving to ITV has also done alot for boxing. Calzaghe has certainly capitalised on the deal he had for 2 years, others unfortunatley did not. Your right about people being Amir fans and not boxing fans, and some of them do support him because he is Muslim and Aisan, like they are. But if even 5% of these guys remain boxing fans and start supporting other fighters thats a good thing for boxing. Perhaps some of them would be supporting Kevin Mitchell this weekend if they wernt racially abused by all of Kevins fans in July at the 02. 900,000 orderd Hatton vs Mayweather and they all bought into the hype that Hatton was going to win, even genuine life long boxing fans on here bought into that. if some of those 900000 stay boxing fans and start to follow other fighters, the hype was well worth it. Boxing is becoming a mainstream sport again in the country and that is partly down to Warren, ITV and Khan no matter how bias there coverage is. They are also paticuarly bias towards English football teams in the CL and Hamilton in F1!
Its a shame this thread continues to go down this path. Just because some ignorant Mitchell fans may have abused Khan's supporters in this manner doesn't make them ALL guilty of this sort of behaviour as you suggest. Just like those who continuously booed and threw objects at Limonds team in between rounds on the same bill aren't representative of all Khan fans.
I am a big Kevin Mitchell fan, i was not saying all his fans do it, but that if those people hadnt done the stuff they did maybe a few of them would e at the mitchell fight this weekend.