By Rick Reeno

MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Amir Khan (29-3, 19KOs) made his debut at the welterweight limit with a twelve round unanimous decision over former WBA champion Luis Collazo (35-6, 18KOs) to pick up the vacant WBC silver title. Collazo went down three times in the fight. The scores were 117-106, 119-104, 119-104.

Khan's fast hands were getting to the target first at the start. Collazo was having trouble dealing with Khan's faster hands. In the third Khan scored a flash knockdown and was landing big shots on Collazo. But Collazo started to rally in the final minute of the round to get out of trouble.

Collazo was applying a lot pressure on Khan and doing it with his hands down, a tactic to get Khan to open up. But it was Khan's quicker, more accurate punches that were scoring the points. Khan was stunned in the eight but quickly recovered. Near the end of the round Khan lost a point for excessive holding.

Collazo was making it close in the ninth the stretch but he was unable to stop Khan's charge in the tenth as Khan scored back to back knockdowns against the ropes after landing hard left hands, and then nearly finished Collazo off before the bell rang to close the round.

Khan outboxed Collazo in the eleventh. He saw himself go down at the start of the twelfth from a hard low blow. It took Khan a good minute or so to recover from the shot. Khan finished the fight by outboxing Collazo to final bell.