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England - Sorry, But You Aren’t Amir Khan’s Daddy(??)
http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=7025&more=1
23.05.06 - Dan Scog: I want to see Amir Khan get creamed. KO’d. Not in a brutal style. Not in a merciless style. But in an embarrassing fashion. I’m thinking a first-round KO like the one we just saw Barrios do unto Nagy on the Barrera-Juarez undercard. Something that leaves the audience in silence, contemplating the money they paid for their seats.
Now for everyone reading this who isn’t living in the UK: meet Amir Khan. A good-looking nineteen-year-old who drives a car worth more money than most of us make in a year. At seventeen he won a lightweight silver medal for Britain in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Even though he vowed to bring Her Majesty a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he has since turned pro – and given one too many British boxing fans the idea that they should sit him up on their knee and advise him about his future. But what they should do is follow the rest of the world’s example: leave him alone and let him grow up.
Don’t get me wrong. I spent six months in London as a young child. My family considered moving there in the 1980’s and I’ve been exposed to all sorts of English culture throughout my life. In fact, I’m a huge fan of the BBC and like to think of myself as the go-to guy for the buzz in British boxing. The British…hell, they’re my family. So make no mistake: my wish for the brakes to be slammed on one of the most promising careers in boxing has nothing to do with nationalism. I’ve got other reasons - good reasons. But the elephant in the room has to be taken for a walk.
In truth, it’s hard not to sympathize with England – they had the last real dominant heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis, outclassing everyone in the division and seemingly ushering in a new era. But now it turns out that this new era is a wave of non-British European champs and it has left the Union Jack salivating at the idea of birthing any extremely dominant fighter, even a lightweight. Hey, we understand. The champs giving up these belts like virginity on prom night are all from our side of the pond.
And yet, I wonder why so many English fans find it difficult to get behind Danny Williams, who is just beginning to enjoy a silver sunset to his career. Especially when the other options are Audley “Friday Night Fights” Harrison and Matt “Anything Goes” Skelton. But it’s true. I often find Danny Williams news buried under headlines about Amir Khan. I shudder to think what might happen if Williams KO’s Skelton in their rematch later this summer and the British press happen to find Amir Khan urinating in public on the same night. It might push poor Williams so far off the front of the page sports you’ll have to read about him in Arts & Leisure. Ah, but I guess that’s entirely another article or three.
Of course my point is simply that the hype behind Khan is just too much. He’s fought only seven times in his pro-career. Only three have been six-rounders. And all of them have starred hand-picked opponents so soft that you expect them to be poked in the stomach, giggle, and then leap onto a cookie sheet. And you can be sure that fights number eight, nine, and ten are coming to a ring near you very soon. Not because Amir is a young bundle of energy, but because his matchups have been more charity than challenge.
I know that boxing is a young man’s sport (and naturally why I always love to root for the older guy), but Khan’s career is ridiculous. Now, I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with it if Khan was a boxing prodigy like Mike Tyson – able to compete at the very top levels of the sport because of his talent. Tyson was indeed Khan’s age when his first championship reigns would begin. But therein lays the difference: Khan is being spoon-fed from the tomato can in hopes he’ll grow into a lightweight Floyd Mayweather Jr. At the same tender age as Khan, Tyson was already was a legitimate contender
In our increasingly hypercompetitive world, the question “How soon is too soon?” is always a part of most professional sports. But it’s one thing to see a young kid knocking the crowns from the kings and quite another to see him cashing million-dollar checks from Reebok for beating up on competition composed of has-beens and never-weres. He’s young, pretty, and fast, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s also been a bully.
If he’s a real champion then he won’t need gimme fights and he’ll also overcome any setbacks he suffers in his early career. There’s no need to coddle him. Right now, he’s like a lottery ticket and it seems like most of Britain (especially his handlers and the press) would rather not peek at winning numbers – for fear he won’t turn out to be the grand prize. Sure, it’s nice to have hope spring eternal, but waiting to ask the question won’t change the answer. If you want the rest of the world to believe the Khan hype – then it’s time to give him a real fight. Until then, no more pictures of his winning smile on the front of the sports page, OK? My friends at BBC Sport…I’m looking at you.
I do think the boy i getting too big for his boots.
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Originally Posted by Lyle
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