All posts tagged fan

Amir Khan Got Me Hooked To Boxing!

by Sarosh Waiz on December 15, 2009 in Boxing, Random with No comments

I have not been a ‘boxing’ fan all my life. In fact, I found it rather boring because I never understood the rules and how it really worked. Similarly, I was never a WWF or a WWE fan, although I did try to follow it will ‘all-my-heart’ because of peer pressure at school. All I could remember today are three names: The Undertaker, Hitman Heart and The Rock. The Rock is an interesting character overall.

It wasn’t that as a kid I never used to like fighting sports, but it was more like it looked ‘lame’ when I saw these guys fighting on WWF. As I grew up, WWE was nothing more than a funny entertainment for me, which of course doesn’t mean that I was a fan.

I liked real fighting as compared to the lame ones. Ask me about Kung-Fu sometime. I loved it. I also happened to practice the basics of Kung Fu for sometime. It was an interesting experience, but I will leave the Kung Fu story for a later date.

Coming back to ‘boxing,’ the sport never inspired me because maybe I never saw it earlier. Or there was no peer pressure that made me follow it. Or another possibility can be that because of PTV only in those days, we never had access to a lot of games and information. All I knew about boxing were two synonymous names of champions, who were Muslims: “Muhammad Ali” and “Mike Tyson”

It was not until recently that I partially got hooked to this sport. I had been hearing about this British Pakistan youngster named “Amir Khan” who made history by winning the WBA World Light-Welterweight Championship in July this year. He is also commonly known as “King Khan” or  the “Pride of Bolton.” Well I never knew all this until Amir Khan defeated Dmitry Salita on 5th December 2009 and the hype reached my ears.

Amir Khan

Amir Khan

Dmitry Salita was the first challenger of Amir Khan’s title, who was a much senior and a more experienced fighter. Dmitry Salita is a Ukrainian American from New York, who is an Orthodox Jew. Now with Amir Khan being a practicing Muslim, the media termed this fight as the “fight of faith” and the “holy war.” The interesting part was that Salita was never defeated in his entire career and a lot of people did not think that Amir Khan would be threatening enough for Salita.

Dmitry Salita

Dmitry Salita

The fight was expected to last for 12 Rounds of 3 minute each as this match was being considered as one of the toughest matches. As soon as the match started, Amir Khan knocked Salita down with his first punch in less than 10 seconds. It was hilarious. Salita managed to get up, but he was knocked down second time again by Amir Khan within seconds. The third time he got up again, and was knocked down thrice in the first round. Amir Khan won the fight and retained the title.

KhanSalita

Khan & Salita

It is a must watch match. This got me hooked up to boxing. It won’t even waste a lot of your time if you are not a boxing fan. Here is the complete video of the match between Amir Khan vs Dmitry Salita:

YouTube Preview Image

Arsenal Fan, Suleiman Omondi, Hanged Himself After Their Champions League Defeat on 5th May 2009

by Sarosh Waiz on May 7, 2009 in Arsenal, Football with 8 Comments

This is to inform all of you who don’t know that an Arsenal fan in Kenya, hanged himself after the horrible Arsenal defeat in the UEFA Champions League Semi-Final against Manchester United.

Suleiman Omondi, aged 29, was found hanged in a middle class Nairobi estate wearing an Arsenal shirt after he left depressed from a pub. It was reported that he took some drinks and broke down in tears during the final minutes of the match. At another source it is also reported that he left around at half time when Arsenal was 2-0 down after arguing with a Manchester United fan, and later was found dead as he hung himself from a rope at his house. The police are still investigating the actual reasons for his death.

Arsenal lost 3-0  against Manchester United that night and this result has hurt and depressed all the Arsenal fans from around the world. But Suleiman was affected so badly that he couldn’t take the depression. BBC representative in Nairobi has said that this incident has shocked everyone in Kenya, and I am sure everyone one of is shocked to hear this. As reported further, Suleiman seemed to be in good spirits before the match an even till the team conceded the 1st goal in the 8th minute. But after the 2nd goal he broke down and got really upset, and then, a Manchester United fan taunted him after which he got really angry and held the Manchester United fan by the neck and pressed him. Other people intervened, and he left the pub in rage. He was found dead on Wednesday morning.

Check this news out at the BBC Website. Brawls are common in Kenya and there have been other such cases in the past.

PS: This is a wake up call to Arsenal. This is how much it hurts all the fans when you play hopelessly. It might just be financials for the Arsenal stakeholders, might just be business for the Arsenal Board of Directors, might be just another job for Arsene Wenger, might just be a career for the players … but this club is the LIFE for all the supporters…! May Suleiman Omondi R.I.P.

Review: Chelsea vs Barcelona (2nd Leg) – Stamford Bridge (UEFA Champions League) – 6th May 2009

by Sarosh Waiz on May 7, 2009 in Football with 3 Comments

After the boring first leg between Barcelona and Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League Semi-Final on 28th April 2009, a lot was expected in today’s game after Arsenal was knocked out from the Champions League Semi Final by Manchester United on 5th May 2009.

Chelsea was the boring team who kept piling up in their own half and Barcelona was the team who was going for it as expected. Chelsea did dominate the game because of home advantage on Barcelona, but on a typical defensive style of play. As possession is usually the key in such big games, and its all about taking opportunities.  Personally being an Arsenal fan I love Barcelona’s style of play and although they are strong in attack but in yesterday’s game it was all about physical and strong play from Chelsea that troubled Barcelona.

Iniesta - Image Courtesy TimesOnline

A lot of controversial fouls and cards in the match, but at the end of the day Barcelona pulled it off and is the team that will go to Rome to face Manchester United in the Final of the UEFA Champions League. By now I believe Chelsea shoud learn a lesson of going out there and playing open football rather than piling up in their own defense. They had to pay for the their style of play in the 1st leg when they thought that they would go to Nou Camp and it would be good enough for them to just play with one striker and pile up in defense to stop Barcelona take the home advantage. I am sorry to say this, but this strategy has hit them back in their own faces. It’s about time they should be fearless and play some football. And as a lot of Chelsea fans would be crying on the penalties that they didn’t get… well you get what you deserve because mostly Chelsea is the lucky team when other teams keep crying and the referees dont give fouls against Chelsea… you have to pay off somewhere don’t you? Its a fair world after all ;) …

 

Three Cheers for Iniesta and Barcelona!! Atleast now I am excited to see some great football in the Final, because if Chelsea would have went in the Finals, the game would have been assumed to be boring already. Yes yes I know a lot of you would tell me that Arsenal lost 3-1 from Manchester United and Chelsea is still a better team.. but you know what? I am still proud to be a Gunner because we love to play open football and in both legs against Manchester United we never piled up in our own half and defended for 90 minutes, and I would still congratulate Manchester United for a great game.

 PS: By the way.. I am still wondering why did Chelsea had to play with 9 defenders and one striker? But way to go guys .. you really defended well!! Three Cheers for the Chelsea defense as well! But I guess Iniesta’s shot was too good that even 9 defenders couldn’t stop it? Train your defenders well for next year ;) …