Amir Khan

[Shamrock]

Warren only has Khan left as a name fighter. The problem he has now is that Khan is signed to Sky and expected to fight on PPV. People will probably buy the first Khan comeback fight because either a) They want to see if he get's sparked again or b) they want to see how he reacts when/if he gets tagged with a decent shot. Most from the response to his loss will be for a) which is a shame.

If Warren babies Khan after the first fight back then any sensible fan will stick two fingers up to paying for his next fights which will put the Sky contract in danger forcing Warren to put Khan into a meaningful fight against a live opponent, Which to be honest is what Khan needs. There's no point him fighting tomato cans or road sweepers and padding his record only to get found out when he gets to the stage of fighting for something meaningful. Khan needs a test, learning fights because he has not developed as a pro, especially with his defence.

As for the talk of Bruno... I liked Frank. In the ring he was genuine, he gave a 100%, had a good if slow jab and hit like a mule. On the down side he was slow and lacked altheticism. I wouldn't say he was chinnt because he took shots from Tyson and Lewis that would have put a lot of heavweights straight to sleep. Bruno's problem was one simmilar to Tommy Hearns - when he got hit and hurt he had no natural instinct on what to do. Normally a fighter can hold on or spoil until his head clears but Bruno didn't have that. When he got hurt the whole ball game went to sh*t and he was there for the taking. He had heart though and if only he'd had a bit more fighting instinct to follow up after the left hook that rattled Tyson to his shoes and the overhand right that had Lennox's leg doing strange things could have changed the face of heavweight history. Instead though he was idolised by the British public for being a gallant loser (until winning the title against Oliver 'nutcase' McCall.

This leads to the most frustrating issue of the British fight fan. This tendancy to love the guy who try's and fails. It's a trait that I don't see from any other Nation. We had Eubank unbeaten and winning the title in a fercoucios battle with Benn loathed by his home country fans. Eubank did not start getting general support or just recognition until he lost !!! The same with Naseem Hamed (although he lost and never really came back...).

It takes a certain level of self belief bordering or often passing to arrogance to be a winner and for whatever reason the British public can't stomach that. We need to overcome that hurdle and start getting behind the winners as much as we as support the losers.