WHAT'S wrong with British boxing fans. Naseem Hamed and Audley Harrison both got a good mauling from their so-called supporters this week despite winning their fights.

If Hamed and Harrison become world champions they will do it in spite of British fight fans rather than because of them.

The battle they have winning over their own countrymen is proving to be a far more difficult task than winning their fights.

They are household names and two of Britain's three best known boxers yet their own country finds it impossible to warm to them.

Listening to the jeers which greeted Hamed's points victory last Saturday and the now customary widespread criticism Harrison was forced to endure after his hard-earned win on Tuesday made me wonder what Britain expects from its boxers.

Hamed is just one great fight away from beating Marco Antonia Barrera and becoming one of the best of all time while Harrison is going about learning the professional ropes in exactly the right way.

What they need is encouragement but that doesn't happen in boxing. Just ask Lennox Lewis who had to become undisputed world heavyweight champion before he finally got the knockers off his back.