LAS VEGAS -- Amir Khan stood sheepishly Friday in a back corner of the crowded stage as we all awaited Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton to weigh-in. His shyness was understood when his name was called to say a few things about the upcoming fight."Traitor," some of the sauced Brits screamed from the bleachers. "F-off, Khan," a trio of Brits screamed.
If there is a more loathed man among Brits this week than Khan, who, oddly enough, was born amongst them in Manchester, England, I don't know who it would be. He may as well be Salman Rushdie in Mecca.
Here's his problem: He's the current English lightweight champion, the WBO Inter-Continental lightweight champion, and the WBA International lightweight champion. He's the lightweight top contender in the WBO and beat Marco Antonio Barrera. He's professed to be a good friend and fan of Hatton.
But Khan had the temerity to spar with Pacquiao in Pacquiao's preparation for his fight against the Brits' favorite fighter, Hatton.
Khan was clearly aware of his uneasy situation and tried to smooth over any hard feelings with British fight fans, who are said to number 25,000 in Las Vegas this weekend.
"It's a 50-50 fight," Khan told the audience. "It's going to be hard because you've got Ricky Hatton who can punch hard and Pacquiao who is very quick."
His countrymen didn't buy his diplomacy and hooted him back to Pacquiao's corner of the stage.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-02-2009 @ 1:39AM
jzz3skys said...
Well there's obviously a distorted expectation of national loyalty among the fans in attendance, however, your analogy to Salman Rushdie in Mecca has me scratching my head. You realize, don't you, Mr. Blackistone, that Pacquiao is not a Muslim, he's a devout Catholic who, after his bout with De La Hoya, was lauded by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines as an inspiration "for us to fight the present evils we face as a nation." Understand, they were not talking about De La Hoya. In other words, they weren't playing ethnic or religious identity politics.
By your saying that Amir Khan "was raised amongst them in Manchester," you seem to be implying that he's not one of them, which may reflect your own gestalt, possibly related to the psychic malformation W.E.B. Du Bois described as "double-consciousness," first delineated in his pre-Niagara Movement address, "The Conservation of Races" [1897]; as compared to soon-to-be Chief Justice Louis D. Brandeis's 1915 address at Faneuil Hall, Boston, "True Americanism," directed toward an audience of European immigrants. Both are politically-motivated identity politics tracts and they're now both 100 years old.
Reply