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JEFF POWELL: Amir Khan's as exciting as they come we should all enjoy him while we still can

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The mystery of why Amir Khan is the most polarising sporting figure in this country remains as perplexing as ever.

Even in as thrilling a victory as anyone could wish to see, Khan divides British opinion in roughly equal measure.

Love him… hate him… the twitterers and the bloggers carried on voicing their admiration or venting their spleen after he came through Saturday’s brutal war with Julio Diaz clutching an heroic win  without which his future would have been plunged into crisis.

Box office: Light welterweight Amir Khan is almost never in a bad fight

It seems that even fights this thrilling and courage so manfully evident are not enough to win over the anti-Khans.

Yet the allegedly suspect chin which engenders so much criticism only makes his fights all the more of a white-knuckle ride for the fans.

What more do they want? A nice guy?

Well, contrary to an extraordinary public misconception, Khan is not the arrogant braggart he seems perceived to be.

Vulnerable: The Bolton boxer's lack of punch resistance is just part of his great appeal

Future revenge? Khan was stopped by Danny Garcia but hopes for a rematch by the end of the year

Although he talks articulately about boxing and his ambitions, he does so with courtesy for his opponents and a modest assessment of his achievements thus far, which do happen to include the winning of two world titles.

Also, since the early age at which he won silver for Britain at the Athens Olympics, he has been a remarkably mature ambassador for Anglo-Moslem relations here.

You do have to wonder if some people have a problem with that.

Because if he were being judged solely on his exploits in the ring and his conduct outside the ropes he would surely be regarded as a sporting role model.

As someone who deals with Khan on a fairly regular basis, take my word for it that this is a very respectable, most likeable young man born to the hard-working ethic of a thoroughly decent family,. Khan’s attitude to his recent set-backs has been to come back fighting.

Fight of the year? Khan's victory over Marcos Maidana was as entertaining a fight as most are likely to see

He needed every ounce of that spirit to get up and overcome Diaz and his reward will be a December chance of regaining his world light-welterweight crown, probably with a chance of revenge against either Danny Garcia, who stopped him, or Lamont Peterson, who cheated him.

Thereafter, he may move up to a pound-for-shot at Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas. Of course there would be no guarantee of victory there but when deciding whether to offer him their support, the British boxing public might consider the excitement he brings to their lives.

Khan is a natural-born fighter and the risks he takes make him big box office in America.

They also commit him to so many battles and the absorbing of so many heavy punches that it might become wiser for him to call a halt to his career sooner rather than later.

We should enjoy him while we can.

 

Floyd Mayweather embarks on Saturday on the six-fight television deal which, if he can fulfil that contract within 30 months, will make him the highest paid athlete of all time.

Pound-for-pound king: Floyd Mayweather's next fight is on Saturday

Challenger: Robert Guerrero is next to face the undefeated welterweight

Decorated: Mayweather fought Britain's Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas in 2007

    More from Jeff Powell...   JEFF POWELL: Vorsprung durch technique (and speed, strength, fitness) - how the German super-athlete came to rule the football world... but what can Rooney and Co learn? 30/05/13   JEFF POWELL: Brutal Froch-Kessler fight has given a face-lift to the battered image of this hard old game 27/05/13   Jeff Powell's ten greatest British battlers... but where does Froch rank on the list? 26/05/13   Warhorse Froch eyes another charge at King Ward after heroic victory over Kessler 26/05/13   Best of British: Froch-Kessler could become one of the best - but what were the others? 24/05/13   Bring on the Gladiators - Froch v Kessler II could go down as one of the greatest fights in boxing history 24/05/13   Jeff Powell on Friday: Scholes and Co bowed out in typically understated fashion (unlike you-know-who), the bland new England shirt will cost parents a fortune... and City owners will have a conflict of interests in New York 23/05/13   Jeff Powell: Forget Beckham's millions, Manny and Money Mayweather show the hard old game is still a real box-office hit 20/05/13   Jeff Powell: Beckham transformed a reasonable talent into immense wealth and fame... for that, I have nothing but admiration 16/05/13   VIEW FULL ARCHIVE  

As he does so he defies his latest challenger for the mythical title of the No 1 pound-for-pound boxer on the planet to ‘unlock The Mayweather Code.’

Robert Guerrero, who appears set shortly to suffer Mayweather’s fate of being imprisoned after admitting carrying a gun into a New York airport, believes he has ‘the answer sinister'.

Guerrero is a southpaw and if Mayweather has had any serious trouble against any of the fighters against whom he has built his all-win record, they have been left-handers.

The Ghost, as Guerrero calls himself, has a hammer in his left hand and is threatening to use it to spring one of the most spectacular upsets of modern ring times.

At which Mayweather smiles and says: ‘Like all those before him, Guerrero believes he has the answer to the Floyd riddle. Well, no-one has unlocked The Mayweather Code so far. I invite him to try but he doesn’t have the tools.’

Some of the other exchanges between the two thus far have been of boxing’s more traditional, insulting variety, sparked by Mayweather accusing Guerrero of being ‘a hypocrite.’

But it is The Code which holds the real answer to this fight for Mayweather’s world welterweight title his home arena, the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

Mayweather is the master of defence and few of his 43 rivals thus far have managed to penetrate that labyrinth let alone defeat him, our own Ricky Hatton included.

Floyd Jnr nicknames himself after the commodity which is his most powerful motivation – Money.

A great deal of cash would fall forfeit should Guerrero break the code.  Anything from $200 million to $300 million depending upon whether  a super-duper fight against Manny Pacquiao still happened to become part of Mayweather’s six-fight contract.

 

Joe Frazier was the most famous son of the City of Brotherly Love but as one of the best world heavyweight champions of all time sank into poverty towards the end of his life it seemed he had been forgotten by Philadelphia.

Smokin’ Joe spent most of his final days as Shakin’ Joe, courtesy of the trains rumbling along a  track adjacent to his dingy bedroom over a run-down boxing gym.

Philadelphia great: Heavyweight Joe Frazier did much to put the city on the map

To add insult to Frazier’s declining health, when the city chose to honour a ‘boxer’ it erected a figure of the fictional Rocky Balboa, as portrayed in the movies by Sylvester Stallone.

Now that wrong is being righted.

A bronze statue of Frazier has been commissioned as the centre-piece of a glossy, multi-million dollar entertainment complex being constructed on the site of the old Spectrum, the arena in which he defeated Oscar Bonavena in 1968.

Fight of the Century: Frazier even defeated The Greatest, Muhammad Ali

The eight-feet high memorial will depict Frazier, three years later, landing the left hook with which he floored Muhammad Ali and broke the jaw of The Greatest en route to winning The Fight Of The Century.

Philadelphia has finally caught up with what happened that epic night in New York’s Madison Square Garden – as well as the ensuing fights in an historic trilogy climaxed by The Thrilla’ In Manilla.Better late than never.

THE TOP 10 FIGHTERS OF ALL TIME?

While Joe Frazier is being immortalised in Philadelphia, he is one of several curious omissions and oddly placed rankings in a new list of the world’s top 10 boxers of all time, as published on an American website.

But then Muhammad Ali comes outside the top five, as does Joe Louis, while Roberto Duran sneaks in but Sugar Ray Leonard does not.

So pick the bones out of this one: 

1)    Sam Langford 2)    Harry Greb 3)    Sugar Ray Robinson 4)    Henry Armstrong 5)    Ezzard Charles 6)    Bob Fitzsimmons 7)    Muhammad Ali 8)    Joe Ganns 9)    Joe Louis 10)    Roberto Duran









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