'L' plates off in Amir's bid for stardom
AMIR Khan has revealed the L' plates are off in his pursuit of a world title.
The Bolton ace takes on Dane Martin Kristjansen in an eliminator for the WBO world lightweight championship at Bolton Arena on April 5.
After only 16 fights, Khan believes he has now outgrown his domestic rivals.
And the unbeaten 21-year-old is now homing in on Prince Naseem's record of becoming the youngest British world champion.
"The L' plates have gone now," said Khan, who has until the end of June to eclipse Naz's achievement.
"I'm at the stage where I've gone past the domestic level - I want to get into the European and world level now.
"It's a different level for me and I know I'm going in the right direction.
"The world title is getting nearer and nearer. Every fight it just gets closer. I just can't wait for a shot at the world title because whoever they put in front of me I know I can beat them."
Although a title showdown in summer seems unlikely, the Olympic silver medalist is convinced he will be a world champion by the end of the year.
"This year is going to be my year," he added. "I'm going to become world champion - there's no doubt about that.
"Every time I wake up and come to the gym I know I'm very close to becoming a world champion. I don't want to throw that all away now. I just want to get better and better."
And the Commonwealth belt holder, who only turned professional in July 2005, thinks a world crown will shut up his critics. Khan said: "If I can do it in three years then it shows how much I have progressed and come on.
"I've got a lot of critics who say I've had easy opponents to fight and been hand fed.
"But it's been hard for me because everyone I've fought has wanted to make a name for themselves.
"Every fight is going to be tough and this next fight just takes me to the next level."
Khan was due to fight Kristjansen in February but the 30-year-old, who has lost just once in 23 contests, was forced to pull out through illness. Khan met Aussie Gairy St Clair instead, who he beat on points.
11:23am Friday 28th March 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: easyroy, daubhill bolton on 10:20am Mon 7 Apr 08
i see the asian thugs wer in attendance at the fight . at least daubhill was free from you all while the fight was on . its time for us to stand up to the muslims and cast our vote for the BNP also it seems you took notice of the muslim cleric and lost your union jack shorts and the union jack flag /
i see the asian thugs wer in attendance at the fight . at least daubhill was free from you all while the fight was on . its time for us to stand up to the muslims and cast our vote for the BNP also it seems you took notice of the muslim cleric and lost your union jack shorts and the union jack flag /
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
