By Simon Hirst: As a British boxing fan first before article writer, my first judgement on a fighter is how good a boxer he is and has the potential to become. If the fighter is good, he should in theory start to build up support, which if he is really good enough will develop nicely into a good fan base. However, there are exceptions to this.

Let’s cut to the chase. In recent years, we have seen good British fighters come through the ranks. Frankie Gavin, Billy Joe Saunders, Tyson Fury, Derek Chisora, James DeGale, Amir Khan, George Groves, Tony Jeffries, Nathan Cleverly, Kell Brook, Matthew Macklin, Darren Barker just to name a few. Now these fighters have fans and they will have their critics, no different to any other fighter. That is part of boxing.

However, some fans get on the back of fighters and perhaps don’t get the support they think they deserve. Two of the listed fighters who seem to think this are James DeGale and Amir Khan. Now both of these fighters fill the criteria for the theory mentioned in the opening paragraph, but they are also both exceptions to the rule. Unfortunately, the truth is blurred to them and they believe to think the reason that they don’t quite get the support they deserve is due to their ethnicity.

Let’s clear this issue up and put it in clear enough language. The reason that people don’t get fully behind them or perhaps putting it more truthfully, are put off them is due to their ego and how they represent themselves. It has absolutely nothing to do with race and such a suggestion just shows how much they think of themselves if they believe the fans are like that. If they truly believe that, then I don’t see why they are bothered by the lack of support.

Starting with DeGale, he seems to think that fans don’t get behind him because of him winning at the Olympics and race has been mentioned after his lack of support at the O2 recently. The real reasons for this, and perhaps are obvious to everyone but his team are simple. His brash, cocky, disrespectful behaviour is not liked by the fans, purely because he is getting way too far ahead of him. His grudge match with Groves recently was of genuine needle, but the way he handled himself was ridiculous. There is selling a fight and there is being ridiculous. As much as he would hate to, he should take a page out of George Groves’ book on how to behave as he managed to find that perfect line of respectfulness whilst showing the feud was for real. The best thing DeGale should do is get his head down and shut up. In Britian, we like people who go in the ring and show how good they are, not people who talk about how good they are. DeGale did this and most fans won’t sympathise with him because quite simple, he deserved it. I think DeGale can get the support he wants, but he need to stop the trash talk, get his head down with a new trainer who can guide him to world level and give him a proper preparation for the opponent in front of him.

Moving on to Amir Khan, there is no doubt about the comments Khan has made in the past. Not to quote, but it resembled something like ‘If I was white, I’d be a superstar.’ Again, this is a question to how he is presented. The fans gave him a good reception and really took to him after the Olympics. However, he went a bit down hill since moving across to America. Most will unanimously agree that moving to Freddie Roach was an excellent move for his career. However, some of the stories that come out about him do him no favours at all. Firstly, having his team go and steal his contract from Alex Ariza seemed absurd. Also, the way in which he split with his first trainer didn’t seem good for him.

Now, the most recent problem has been his fight with McCloskey. The fact is Sky had a quality control issue with his fight with McCloskey with the undercard not appropriate for PPV. Khan has labelled himself ‘a PPV fighter’ which shows an arrogance about himself as he believes no matter who is on his card or who he fights, the fight should be PPV because he is fighting. Well, in recent copies of Boxing News, fans have wrote in comparing how they met him a few years ago and at the McCloskey media work out and how he had changed, not spending time with the fans. It was said Freddie Roach was more approachable. Then after moving from Sky, he announced that he won’t fight in England for a long time because of this. This shows not only a lack of class, but questions why we should pay to watcher a fighter who punishes his fans in his home country because his team couldn’t produce a card that was worthy of PPV.

Frankie Gavin was booed at the O2 for his performance despite dominating Young Mutley. Other fighters have been booed and disliked, but haven’t complained. As a personal opinion, I think most people aren’t too bothered about Amir Khan going off to America. I also believe that DeGale can change the way fans view him if he is willing to change his attitude. Whether he does this is highly doubtful. But just a hint when feeling unloved by the British fans, look past the race card please!