By Oli Smith

It has been a whirlwind 15 months for Amir Khan, after suffering his first defeat to Breidis Prescott at Lightweight he bounced back with three straight wins, capturing the WBA world title at Light-Welterweight in July. Rumour has it that Khan plans to take America by storm next year,  big name fights are on the horizon but first he needed to successfully make his first defense against mandatory challenger Dmitriy Salita at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle.

In the lead up to the fight Salita had the quiet confidence of someone who had yet to taste defeat, in his mind, it simply wasn’t an option. Boasting a record of 30-0-1 (16KO’s) Salita certainly looked like a tough first defence on paper. A closer inspection of the challenger’s record doesn’t throw up any household names, nor any stellar wins. He has however worked tirelessly to get his shot. Salita, after all, was first in line to fight Kotelnik before Khan got to him; Salita getting an immediate shot was a stipulation of Khan’s big win back in July.

Question marks are still raised as to what Khan can achieve, his win over Kotelnik was without doubt his best performance, yet it came against arguably the weakest champion in the division, on a bad night. Juan Manuel Marquez and Edwin Valero hold titles down at Lightweight – no one can argue that Khan took the path of least resistance against Kotelnik, one weight higher. Yet Khan isn’t to blame for this, greatness isn’t achieved on the way to the top, it is defined by what you do while while you’re on top. Khan may have been guided well to his title, but from here on out he needs to prove he is more than just hype.

As the bell sounded for the first round both men met at the centre of the ring, Salita threw a jab out to establish range as Khan circled on the outside. Then the champion moved in, with dazzling hand speed he landed a left and a straight right combination which sent Salita crumbing to the canvas, merely ten seconds into the round.

Salita looked unsteady as he rose from the count, Khan stalked forward sensing the victory, he positioned Salita against the ropes and battered him to the floor. Once again the challenger rose, this time looking more composed. Salita threw back desperately to keep Khan at bay and to prevent the referee jumping in, it just wasn’t enough. Having been sapped of his strength by the knockdowns and without putting thought into his work, Salita couldn’t muster the strength in his shots to keep Khan at bay. A left hook knocked the challenger off his feet and entangled him in the ropes. At this point ref Luis Pabon had seen enough and stepped in to end Salita’s title challenge at 1:16 of the first round.

With the win, Khan surpassed everyone’s expectations, sure Salita had never really been tested, but stringing together a 31 fight streak without tasting defeat is no mean feat. Salita was never going to set pound for pound lists alight nor storm through weight divisions destroying competition, but at the same time, he is and can still be a top ten contender. Khan has always meant to have beaten his opposition. He was supposed to beat Barrera because he was five years and two weight classes removed from his best.

He was supposed to beat Willie Limond, Scott Lawton, and Graham Earl; because they were just domestic level fighters. On Saturday he did what he should have done against Breidis Prescott, he was supposed to take the scalp of another undefeated talent and this time round he got the job done.  In doing so he also looked like he is maturing into the talent we have all been told he is, the hand speed we all knew was there is even more prevalent, it is just a shame we didn’t get to see him ply his trade a little longer to see how the other areas of his game have improved.

It is both easy and difficult to see where Khan goes from here; clearly he will be chasing some big names in America next year, that’s a given. What is not so obvious is how he will fair against some truly world class talent, something Khan has yet to come up against.

Despite losing to Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez knows how to neutralise speed and most would fancy his chances against Khan. Hatton, Campbell and Diaz are all options for voluntary defenses next year. Khan’s next mandatory defense will likely be against the power punching Marcos Maidana, which would virtually guarantee fireworks in a pick ‘em fight. A left field choice for me however, is someone that may help put to rest fears over Khan’s glass chin, the murderous punching Edwin Valero. Should Valero want to move up,  it is a fight that brings many positives to the table for both parties and would blend two styles which couldn’t fail to entertain – for as long as it lasted. 

On the undercard, Breidis Prescott returned in the hope of getting his post-Khan career back on track against unbeaten Kevin Mitchell. Mitchell has been sidelined with a tendon injury recently and as such he hasn’t been able to build the momentum which he is capable of. Both men squared off for the WBO Intercontinental Lightweight championship, the fight would also be contested as a WBO world title eliminator. Mitchell had been flirting with a move up to Lightweight in his last three bouts, edging ever closer to the 135lbs limit. On Saturday, he would receive the sternest test in these unfamiliar waters.

Prescott came out the only way he knows how from the first round onward – swinging. As such he forced Mitchell into operating cautiously; the Londoner prides himself on his durability, stating that he has never been down either as a professional nor amateur, getting clattered by a big Lightweight such as Prescott certainly wasn’t high on his to do list tonight. Instead he boxed intelligently, using lateral movement as well as head and upper body movement to deflect most of the shots and certainly take the sting out of the biggest bombs.

It was a perfectly implemented plan and one that allowed him to dictate the pace of the fight, without being the aggressor. Prescott’s downfall is that he is too easy to read, he telegraphed his shots all night. He threw the same over hand right from the same position after measuring the range with his jab. A boxer as wily as Kevin Mitchell won’t get caught by too many of them before adjusting accordingly. And adjust he did. It was an intriguing clash of styles, although not one that created anything particularly spectacular – considering both men have knockout ratios way in excess of 70%.

Still it was a masterful performance by Kevin Mitchell who looked comfortable at the weight, seemed to carry his power up the scale - though wasn’t able to dent Prescott’s impressive chin – and most importantly frustrated a bigger, more powerful guy for a full twelve rounds. Prescott may have a questionable record but he is an underrated boxer – he isn’t subtle, far from it. But what he does, he generally does well. His best punch all night was the long, sharp jab that he didn’t use to his full advantage and though he is no Pernell Whittaker, he is certainly craftier in defense than people give him credit for.

Mitchell won the fight with ease, showing he is capable of sticking to and adapting to a changing game plan over a full 36 minutes. Scores of 119-110, 118-111, 117-111 were read out in favour of the plucky Londoner, whose record improves to 30-0. It also means that he is now in line for a shot at the WBO world title, currently held by Juan Manuel Marquez. Whether Marquez will stick around at Lightweight when there are some interesting fights five pounds north remains to be seen, if he does decide to move up, then Michael Katsidis will be named as full champ and a tantalising fight between two all action warriors can be put into motion.