Khan, our superstar

The Panel, Glenn McCrory, Johnny Nelson and Nicky Piper were left drooling by Amir Khan's triumph.

The Panel are left purring as Khan claims his first world title

Amir Khan has been crowned world champion at the age of 22. The boy from Bolton produced a consummate display to outclass and outpoint Andreas Kotelnik and claim the WBA light-welterweight title. It was a result the Sky Sports boxing panel, of Jim Watt, Glenn McCrory, Johnny Nelson and Nicky Piper, picked to a man. But even they did not expect it to be so comfortable for Khan. Here is what Glenn, Johnny and Nicky had to say after a sensational night of boxing at the MEN Arena...

GLENN McCRORY: We talked about strategy and he had the perfect strategy. He knew what he had to do, he had to have a very high workrate. Kotelnik actually boxed a lot better than I thought he would and was a lot more dangerous and a lot busier, but all the time he kept the workrate and what was good to see was the maturity. He would hold when he needed to and put the handcuffs on Kotelnik and also moved a lot when he had to. He fought when he wanted to and when Kotelnik wanted to fight, he moved. I think maturity was the key. It was what he needed to do and I think the work with Freddie Roach has been fantastic for him. He's worked so hard for this. You've got to give him such credit for turning things around. He's been on a fast track all his career and to come up trumps again, you've got to say well done to Amir Khan. He's still very young, very inexperienced at world-title level and there are some brilliant fights out there for him, just not in the next six months. He's very young, he's tall and he can even move up another level or two, he carries the weight well. I think what's important is that he keeps on the floor. He's always been very well grounded and works hard, but there are some big fights out there, maybe in America. Whether or not he stays at light-welter - the option is always there to come back down to lightweight - the world is his oyster. I think the potential is there for him to be a boxing superstar. When you see the rapid improvement he's made over the last 10 months, it's fantastic and I think he can go on and on and get even better.

JOHNNY NELSON: I think it's an amazing feat for Amir Khan to mature and stay so disciplined because he knew the prize was so massive. You could tell towards the end he (Kotelnik) was getting desperate, but he stuck to that gameplan. I think the step up to light-welterweight, the extra weight has given him some strength. There's two things we have learned about Amir Khan here: one is now he's put the weight on he can hold a shot and two, he's matured, he's no longer getting reckless and throwing caution to the wind and getting involved when he shouldn't do. He got tired towards the end, but he would do at the pace he was working at. But he showed maturity. He will not be able to sleep tonight, he will lay in his bed tonight with his eyes wide open staring up into the dark thinking 'have I really done it?'. He's not the finished article and so to put him in with these headhunters in the top 10 in the world, you have to be careful.

NICKY PIPER: He won almost every round. He started like a steam train, yet Kotelnik looked good. He was losing the early rounds, but he still looked strong and we always feared he could lose it with one punch or the stamina could go, but not a bit of it. He took some good punches and he kept a really good workrate throughout the contest, from the first round to the twelfth. He was struggling a bit at the end, but the accuracy and combinations, we knew he always had them. But the questions we had were answered at the end. There was not a high success rate there (19 per cent of punches landed) but when you throw that many punches, that fast, all those combinations... and don't forget Kotelnik's got a brilliant defence.