Degale should never fight in britain again!!

[SpitBalla]

1 Naz isn't black

2. Ali was absolutely hated by all and sundry in his peak!!. it's only after his career ended did people really start to appreciate just how good he was,

3. Haye hasn't got a massive following in the UK

4. Froch talks a lot of sh/t too but i don't recall him ever being booed in his own country like Degale has been.

Mohammed Ali was the most hated athlete in the history of American sports. There were at least 3 real plots to kill him, and many more death threats.

He wasn't an American icon. He was an icon for the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. He was an Islamic icon. That's why he was so important, he meant so much to so many people, and it wasn't us Americans. It's only much much later in history was he accepted by the Americans.

[Sparked_1985]

DeGale acted like a wanker and a lot of people booed.

Gosh. Who'd have thunk it.

[Flux]

I'm actually arguing a point against xenophobia.

That Benn was popular here and turned out to be a genuinely good guy doesn't mean that the English are good judges of mens' character. It's more a matter of coincidence.

Ricky Hatton was more popular and he's not half the caliber of individual that Benn was/is.

It's nice that he repped local businesses on his gear and supported a sports team, but many fighters do these things. As for 'ooh, Ricky told "laddy" jokes, he must be a modest, humble chappy' - that's the kind of superficial crud I'm talking about.

There was nothing of hearsay about those anecdotes, BTW. Fans had complained and expressed their discontentment on a number of issues related to the Hatton brand on his own forum.


I'm not saying I expect the English to be more perceptive, BTW - I don't. I expect them to continue to buy into the same old stereotypes they've bought into for time immemorial. Doesn't mean I won't make observations on it, though.

I was referring to your mass generalisation of how "the english" percieve things. Plus I'm not bigging up Hatton for doing these things, I'm saying that goes a long way towards his popularity. When you claim to know things, it just transpires into mass generalisations.

Maybe people aren't pessimistic, maybe these things are trivial to people, maybe they don't want to know. I'd say it's more likely people like to see they have few things in common with an athlete, and that's generally a nice thing to know. Plus no not many fighters that reached the elite level Hatton did, have played the football fan aspect like he did. He came out to Manchestr City's anthem etc.

I'm not looking to pitch personality against personality. Benn and Hatton were both huge fan favourites, and that's because they embody no-nonsense styles in the ring, but are able to distance themselves from that outside the ring.

[TouchyAndalou]

1 Naz isn't black

He's a ****** of Yemeni heritage, who despite having his fair number of detractors, was also significantly popular. So he hardly fits your description of the white warrior image apparently necessary to excel in this country.

2. Ali was absolutely hated by all and sundry in his peak!!. it's only after his career ended did people really start to appreciate just how good he was,

This is wrong, but I hardly expected you to know any different. Ali's visit to Newcastle in 1977, when he was still an active fighter, practically brought the city to a standstill. He was massively popular in the UK at the time.

3. Haye hasn't got a massive following in the UK

Again, wrong. Haye consistently does the biggest PPV numbers of any active fighter in the country. There's a reasonable chance he'll beat the numbers Hatton did against Mayweather when he fights Klitschko in July. I'd say that this is a significant following, wouldn't you?

4. Froch talks a lot of sh/t too but i don't recall him ever being booed in his own country like Degale has been.

The most **** Froch spoke was about Calzaghe, and he's only fought once in the country since then. In his hometown of Nottingham.

Now let's say he had of fought Calzaghe at the O2 and spoke as much **** about him as Degale spoke about Groves. You know what would have happened? He would have gotten booed.

[PRINCE O' PROSE]

It's that sad moment when one person is having a laugh and the other is deadly serious.
I guess I took your jibes and use of emoticons and 'lmao' to reinforce your ever so strong points as a sign of playful internet banter.

If this was a serious debate all along, I apologize...

LOOOOL @ backing off your BS point and hiding behind the 'jokey banter' line. It doesn't wash, because you so obviously believe that stuff about the 'difference' between Yanks and Brits; you were trying to make a serious point, it's just your point is so riddled with holes that you've had to abandon it.


The acronymal laughter and emotes = I'm getting jokes at how much of a tool you are.

[TouchyAndalou]

I'm not saying I expect the English to be more perceptive, BTW - I don't. I expect them to continue to buy into the same old stereotypes they've bought into for time immemorial. Doesn't mean I won't make observations on it, though.

These anecdotes you refer to are not common knowledge, I don't think. I'd never heard of Hatton wronging his fans. But I now fully appreciate the need to conduct thorough moral background checks on an athlete before I consider supporting them. To think, I didn't scour the Hatton forums for dissenting opinion. The shame!

[Southpaw Stinger]

LOOOOL @ hiding behind the jokey banter line. It doesn't wash, though, because you so obviously believe that stuff about the 'difference' between Yanks and Brits; you were trying to make a serious point, it's just that your point is so riddled with holes that you've had to abandon it.


The acronymal laughter and emotes = I'm getting jokes at how much of a tool you are.

Oh I do believe it to a certain point. But I mainly respond to a jokey anti brit post with a jokey anti yank post as it's bound to get a reaction. The way I've always been on here as any thread featuring a brit fighter is automatically going to go down that route of Yank vs Brit.
In all seriousness I'm not anti American in anyway. If I had to tally up there are more American fighters I like than Brit and I would openly support them in competition. Such was the case of Taylor-Froch. Despite Froch's toughness of sorts, I prefer Taylor's boxing.
And although Klit isn't American, I'm routing for him against Haye.

Just please stop with the insults and know it all attitude. There's no need to make everything an argument.

[Jim Tom]

The boy carried his whole country on his back in the olympics and brought home the gold medal, even after that he was booed in his first fight because the public wasn't "entertained" enough, he went and fought Paul Smith and again he was cast as the "villain" just because he talks up his skills and hypes up the fight, now we come to todays clash with George Groves and the way that fecking crowd were acting you would have thought Degale was foreign!! ,

Then to round off the night those dumb judges try to derail the kid's career by handing Groves an absolute gift he didn't deserve!!, but that's "britain" for you, you aren't getting a decision unless you're a (white) brawler who the fans love it seems, we saw the same thing happen to Dirrell against Froch but i didn't think they'd do it to a top British prospect,

After this shambles i think Degale should head for America where he'll be able to hone his skills with a better trainer and fight infront of audiences who will appreciate his skills more, instead of fighting infront of people who are praying for him to lose and judges who are easily influenced by them,

In closing this will be a sickener for James, and he'll probably be questioning himself and his future, but i hope he takes my advice and leaves britain behind and starts fresh, he clearly wasn't at his best tonight and has a few things to learn but he can still prove people wrong by fulfilling his potential, then in the future maybe he can get a rematch with Groves!!..preferably OUTSIDE of britain.

The crowd were probably supporting an underdog.This has nothing to do with race.To be fair Degale lost.He did not have any clue whatsoever on how to deal with Groves.

[PRINCE O' PROSE]

I was referring to your mass generalisation of how "the english" percieve things. Plus I'm not bigging up Hatton for doing these things, I'm saying that goes a long way towards his popularity. When you claim to know things, it just transpires into mass generalisations.

Maybe people aren't pessimistic, maybe these things are trivial to people, maybe they don't want to know. I'd say it's more likely people like to see they have few things in common with an athlete, and that's generally a nice thing to know. Plus no not many fighters that reached the elite level Hatton did, have played the football fan aspect like he did. He came out to Manchestr City's anthem etc.

I'm not looking to pitch personality against personality. Benn and Hatton were both huge fan favourites, and that's because they embody no-nonsense styles in the ring, but are able to distance themselves from that outside the ring.

I could say that's an overly optimistic defence of the shallow English mentality, but I don't mind you stating it that way.

I don't think my observations are really generalizations, though, just a reference to traits that bind a majority consciousness together - you yourself made observations about collective thought, just not in a negative light.

Like I said, I don't expect it to be any different. But I will correct fools (like the one earlier in the thread) who make wrongheaded, inaccurate claims about the greater virtues of English, as opposed to American, fight fans.

[SpitBalla]

Well the English are certainly more racist than Americans, no doubt about it. But Lennox Lewis and Haye did become popular, so it's not like Black athletes are hated or anything like that.

But look at how Khan is treated. If we want to talk racism, Khan is the absolute perfect example. If he did the exact same things and was white, people would worship him. But the dude has 10 million the bank already, and while there are a lot of racists out there and in these forums he does have LOTS of fans as well, so its hard to feel sorry for him.