(Photo credit: Ester Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: American Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) says there are a lot of British boxing fans that are pulling for him to beat Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) in their head to head match-up this Saturday night on Showtime from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is kind of a surprise to some fans of the sport, because Khan is seen as someone with a large fan base in the UK. It’s news that there are people from the UK who are actually rooting against him rather than for him.
“A lot of my UK fans want me to beat Amir Khan. I don’t know what’s happening over there, but thanks for the support, guys,” Alexander said via Fightnews.com.
Ouch! That’s got to hurt if you’re Khan. I mean, I thought the guy had a pretty much a lock on most of the UK as far as them rooting for him to win on Saturday. But for Alexander to be now saying that there are UK fans that are supporting him rather than Khan, it leaves one to wonder whether Khan is as popular in his own country as some people originally thought.
If Khan isn’t getting the full support of his fellow Brits, the question is what is he doesn’t wrong to lead them astray. Is it his personality? Are some of his British fans turned off by Khan’s personality and overconfidence or is this a case of the UK fans not particularly liking Khan’s style of fighting with all the holding, shoving, pulling down on the head, head-locks and running that he likes to do. I mean, there’s a huge difference between the way Khan fights and the way Ricky Hatton used to fight and how Kell Brook fights.
Are the UK fans displeased with Khan’s holding and running? Unfortunately, I don’t see Khan being able to change his fighting style in order to win over the UK fans that don’t like him. If Khan stops holding and running in his fights, I think he’ll get knocked out over and over again, because he’d be forced to stand and trade with his opponents, and I don’t think Khan has the chin to stand his ground against anyone with any kind of punching power.
If Khan didn’t run and hold, he’d be in a situation where he’d be in a race where he’d have to knock his opponent out before they knocked him out. I could see Khan winning some of those matches, but not all of them. He’d likely get run over by Brook, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman, Brandon Rios, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr if he couldn’t run or hold much of the fight.
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