He insulted other successful British fighters when he had achieved nothing, any time anyone said anything other than good things about him he played the race card. He was loved and supported during his Olympic run, it was only after he turned pro and started running his mouth people started to dislike him. The man is an arrogant piece of shit, he would be hated no matter what colour he is. Don't give him the excuse of being Muslim, he's just a horrible person, using the race card is a shitty excuse and damages people who actually suffer from real racism.
Eubank got a ton of hate for hating on(and beating) Benn, Lennox was hated for a long long time for talking shit about Bruno and acting very arrogant early on in his career, both Groves and Froch have large groups that dislike them for perceived arrogance. The whole "They hate me because I'm brown and Muslim" is just a way to excuse him for having a shitty attitude and just adds to the dislike for him.
I personally don't like Khan either but it's a bit of a stretch to say that there is no racism at all involved with Khan, let's be honest people don't like him because he's
cocky and a 'paki.' It's a mix of his personality and racism - to deny that racism is not involved is pretty hilarious - it's an ugly thing to want to acknowledge but unfortunately it is true.
I've heard from people who went to his earlier fights while he was still in the UK and they quite clearly said there were racial slurs/chants by certain parts of the crowd, especially more so after his loss to Prescott, especially in Manchester.
That said most of the hate is because of his personality but let's not be to delusional and try to deny that a significant element of the hate he gets is because he's also ethnically Pakistani.
Also what I don't understand is the arrogant or personality bashing, most boxers have egos, arrogance, cockiness or in general what would be deemed as attitude problems. Naseem had all those qualities yet he was loved by the British crowd - because we overlook those qualities as long as they can back it up - it's a bit of a double standard to then hate someone else for doing the exact same thing (amir khan). I wonder if all those fans hated cocky boxers like for example Naseem - I doubt it, so why bring up the arrogance or personality card, when for others it's alright but for others it's not, seems extremely retarded IMHO.
One more thing, let's not equate the hate Groves or Froch get's to that of Khan, we both know very well that Khan gets it to a degree which is a lot more than the others or his other British contemporaries. I mean Garcia's dad compounded the exact attitudes of a specific portion of British boxing fans attitudes to Amir Khan.
Does Khan overplay the racism card - maybe or maybe not, only he really knows the kind of abuse he gets, it's all well and good saying he doesn't when we aren't exactly their to witness it whereas he obviously has first hand experience of what he thinks is racism. That enough should be a cause for concern at least for the moderate British boxing fan.
