AMIR Khan has reacted with disgust and anger over anti-Muslim racists he claims are blighting the nation and trying to turn fight fans against him.
Khan has been surprised in recent years by a small minority of boxing fans who have directed racist abuse towards him.
WBA light-welterweight champion Khan, who makes the first defence of his crown against the Ukrainian-born Jewish-American Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle tonight, has received a negative reaction at recent boxing shows.
“It’s probably jealousy, and sometimes skin colour does make a difference,” he said. “I know if I was a white English fighter I would be a superstar in Britain and the world.
“I never get [face-to-face] racial remarks but it’s always out there, which you can’t stop. You just live and learn with what people are like. I just choose to ignore them and carry on with my career.
“Straight after the Breidis Prescott fight, when people said, ‘He’s finished’, there were racial remarks made.
“But it made me stronger. It made me come back stronger and made me a better fighter.
“I am proud to be British, and it’s a very small minority who say that. But it does hurt you and it pushes you all the way. I went to the Olympic Games and won a medal for Britain and then won a world title for Britain, but sometimes you don’t see the appreciation.”
Khan was born and raised in Bolton by Pakistani parents, and has consistently spoken out against violence between white and Asian communities in Britain. In the aftermath of the London bombings he urged the Asian community to help the police capture the culprits.
“I am confronting issues to fix things between the Asian community and English community because there’s always going to be racial things there and not getting on with each other,” he said.
“I’m trying to break that barrier and prove to people it’s nothing like that.
“They have to accept that I’m British. I went to the Olympic Games for Britain. I could have chosen to go for Pakistan if we were all like that. I’m a Muslim but I respect other religions and other cultures. Just like with Salita. I respect the Jewish religion and he respects me.
“With me being a sportsman and being an icon, if I can send a little message across that will help people, I will do that.
“I’m never going to change as a person. I believe in peace and I know that religion really shouldn’t come into sport.
“I have never experienced face-to-face racism myself, but if you go on the message boards and chat forums there are always people who have to get the religious thing in.
“You get it the other way too [from young Muslim extremists] and that’s why I would rather just have peace.
“I’m doing what I love doing and it’s a sport. Everything around it I choose to ignore.”
Khan’s message of harmony will be welcomed within the world of boxing, a sport which has enjoyed champions from all walks of life and all religions.
Khan has decamped from Lancashire to California in the past year to be nearer esteemed trainer Freddie Roach, and he says the clear difference in the way America and Americans treat their sporting stars has prompted thoughts of making the move permanent.
“I’ve only been in America for a year and maybe I haven’t seen the reality, but there does seem to be a culture which is more into celebrating success,” he said. “So far, all I’ve seen have been positive.
“That’s the difference between America and here. In America they treat me like a god. Everyone shakes my hand and says, ‘You have made one of the best comebacks ever in boxing’.
“Oscar de la Hoya came to see me train and Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao and they can’t believe it. They want to be a part of me. They want to come to the gym to see me train.
“I am a big fan of theirs and when I first met them I was quite shy. They said it was a great performance against Andreas Kotelnik and now I must take out this guy Salita.”
Khan will do well to finish this bout early as Salita is durable and fights with a languid and cultured style.
His trainer Jimmy O’Pharrow has taught him for 14 years and says New Yorker Salita ‘looks Russian, prays Jewish and fights black’.
As a committed Jew, Salita will not fight until sundown on the Sabbath. When told in Newcastle that means around 3pm, he said: “You are joking aren’t you? Whatever time we fight it will still be lights out for Amir Khan.
Source: express.co.uk
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