He Khan and he will!

Khan: will rule the world

The boy himself says he is ready to fight for a world title and whether or not you agree with that, I do like to see fighters putting pressure on their promoters. There is no doubt he will fight for a world title very soon and I fancy him to win one as well.

Jim Watt
Quotes of the week

AMIR KHAN v BREIDIS PRESCOTT
12 rounds lightweight
Live on Sky Box Office
9.00pm, Saturday, September 6
Channel 743 & 753 for HD
£14.95 (UK), €21.95 (ROI)
Call 08442 410 888 to book the fight now!

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There is no doubt this is the most important time in young Amir Khan's career.

He is without doubt the best prospect in British boxing and arguably one of the best in the world, and has clearly served his apprenticeship.

He is already a Commonwealth champion, he has already won a WBO eliminator and is rated in the top 10 by all four governing bodies, so over the next few fights we will see him stepping up and up.

Breidis Prescott is the first test. We don't know too much about him but he is undefeated and has a decent knockout record and coming from Colombia you would expect him to be tough. He is 5ft 11in so although Khan has been accused of being matched against smaller guys in the past, I don't think that will be the case here.

Young Amir needs matches like this. To give Frank Warren credit he has handled him very well indeed up until now. You have to keep in mind that the lad is still only 21 and still has things to learn, so Warren is right to treat him carefully because he is one hell of a commodity.

It is much the same as he did with Ricky Hatton on Sky Sports a few years back, although I don't think he can hold Khan back as long.

The boy himself says he is ready to fight for a world title and whether or not you agree with that, I do like to see fighters putting pressure on their promoters. There is no doubt he will fight for a world title very soon and I fancy him to win one as well.

But my old division, the lightweight division, is one of the toughest in the sport right now. It has changed a lot in the last few months when we all though Juan Diaz would rule for a long time. Nate Campbell put paid to that and now has the three belts.

He is fighting another cracking fighter, Joan Guzman, next. Add to that a rejuvenated Joel Casamayor, the explosive Michael Katsidis and another former world champion in Julio Diaz and you can see why Frank is taking his time with Khan.

Expectations

I do think though that in three or four fight's time when this lot have sorted themselves out and tidied things up, it will be the time to let Amir loose.

In the meantime he needs a couple more names on his record. Gairy St Clair is a decent scalp but he was really a super-featherweight so in these next few fights I would like to see a couple of American names and maybe a South American, just to make sure he is ready.

Names raise eyebrows as much as performances in boxing and that is all that is missing from Amir's record to date.

But there's no doubt what he has achieved so far has been nothing short of excellent. When you think of the pressure he was under coming out of the Athens Olympics he has done well to live up to expectations.

Yes there have been a couple of blips along the way, but that happens with every young fighter and we here in Britain are all too quick to criticise our sportsmen. I think Khan deserves every bit of praise going - and he will get even more over these next few fights.

But first he has to get past Prescott on what looks a like a cracking bill at the MEN Arena.

Battling

Khan will be the draw but I know a lot of people, including me, will be looking forward to Alex Arthur against Nicky Cook.

It is not often we see two British fighters battling it out for a world title, but both boxers also have a point to prove.

Arthur was, not so long ago, in the same position as Khan: he was the talented prospect who everyone was predicting big things from. He got shocked by Michael Gomez but learned his lesson and is now the WBO champion.

But Alex won the title out of the ring which is never satisfying for a boxer. He will want to show everyone he is a worthy champion and will be determined to put on a show.

As for Cook, he has already had one world title chance against Steven Luevano, which didn't come off. He will feel fortunate to have a second one and he won't want to let this go to waste either.