Practical Photography

Over the last few weeks the promotion guys have been going crazy over the Khan Vs Prescott fight on Saturday. The fight was held at the MEN and 60,000 strong turned up paying £60 for the worst seats and in excess of £500 for the best. It was shown on Sky Box Office which cost viewers £14.99 to watch live and the marketing showed cocky Amir Khan wrapped up in the Union Jack pouting into the lens.

Amir Khan was supposed to walk it and knock out Prescott in an easy fight paving the way for him to take a World Title. He underestimated Prescott and had a poor defence letting past two fatal blows to the temple in the first 30 seconds which he never really recovered from and inevitably got knocked out at 54 seconds into round 1.

Prescotts form was fast with big looping punches but he was by no means showing world class technique for such a memorable knock out. No, it was Khans cockiness and bad defence that let him down, the punches were hard but Khan had no respect for the fighter he was up against and seemed to spend too much time in front of the camera than in the gym.

It leads me to wonder if todays boxers are spending too much time in endorsments and publicity than perfecting their form. David Haye is an excellent boxer but is know for being the pin up boy of the sport with his smouldering looks that earned him modelling contracts prior to him becoming a professional boxer.

Amir Khan has not been professional long and since his performance in the olympics as an amateur he has earnt millions with Reebok and other sponsorships without him actually becoming the world champion he aspires to be. It seems that he should have been less arrogant and concentrated on his last fight rather than posing for the fans with his perfected ‘look’.

At least we can be safe in the knowledge that Ricky Hatton will be in the Gym instead of on the next cover of a fashion mag, boxers should take a leaf out of his book and stick to boxing, work hard and don’t become too vain or arrogant!