Indeed, that's what I meant by him being almost "too" big of a star for the UK. He ended up being the one viewers were expecting the most from at each show despite Warren's efforts to the contrary.stujones wrote:Well, Warren tried doing things different - if I remeber rightly - Khan was on undercards (officially) of bills.... there was 2 British title fights on his debut - Even later on he fought on the Undercard of Williams vs Skelton etc - even when he went to 10 rounders he was an undercard fighter - Williams vs Harrison etc.J-C wrote:Khan was almost too big of a star for this country when he turned pro. A bit like Audley he ended up the main attraction for a lot of people tuning almost straight away. Every move was scrutinsed and people got on his back about opponents not realising fighters need to adjust to the pros and develop.stujones wrote:Khan came home from Athens a bit of a national hero - even though he fell at the last hurdle, he and Holmes became the faces of the games. His fight with Kindalen was watched by millions (our last chance for Gold etc).
It's almost as though he would have benefited from starting out in America where he could fight on undercards of bigger fights with less pressure. Although I realise this may not have been feasible from a business point of view.
However, aside from that last fight mentioned - Khan did seem to be the main attraction, but I think Warren did his best to try and avoid an Audley situation - just that I don't think he had much power in how ITV edited the shows.
Side note - Has any other British fighter had quite such big expectation on them when turning pro? Audley maybe?
Well done sir.