Amir Khan vs Andreas Kotelnik WBA light welterweight championship of the World official on-site programme plus £100 full ticket, 18th July 2009, M.E.N. Arena, Manchester.

Condition mint

Khan W UD 12
An evening billled as the 'Man who would be King' ended in supreme and deserved ecstasy for the prospective new member of fight-game royalty, Amir Khan, who took the first world crown of a career that, following a near-masterclass performance to defeat Andreas Kotelnik and claim his WBA light-welterweight title, could be now filled with stardust nights in the pay-per-view palaces of Las Vegas and Madison Square Garden.

"It's the best feeling ever," said the British fighter afterwards. "I want to thank Freddie Roach and my team for making this happen. I'm a world champion and I'm going to enjoy it. I'm still young and I've got big things to come."

Naseem Hamed was sat front row to watch British boxing's most dynamic youngster since the Prince from Sheffield became WBO featherweight champion aged 21, beating Khan's quite brilliant achievement by a year and in two less fights. Khan will not care. When the verdict was read out it was unanimous and the new champion's face showed it was a timeless moment he will long cherish.

The opening round started with Khan's quick jabs and combinations, getting in and out, with which he would boss Kotelnik all night. Round three was a stormer, with Khan apparently caught early on by Kotelnik's deceptively quick hands. But, the contender's combinations were even faster, and he was landing those one-twos then leaving the danger far better than he has ever done. Kotelnik's main tactic at this stage was to clip and thud Khan as he came in, and from ringside it seemed the Ukranian was registering the heavier punishment, which nearly shaded him the fourth. That, though, was the closet he came to claiming a round. A right to Khan's left temple, which had him hurrying, followed by a left that buttoned his nose from Kotelnik were the stand-out moments of the fifth.

Khan was still doing the greater work, and it was his turn now to land a right – this blow had Kotelnik's cheekbone bending, and the Boltonian again had the round. That meant we were now in the seventh. Khan knew if he continued this way the title was his. A left from Khan announced the start of the round and then he was relentless, firmly establishing this was the best performance of his career.

Kotelnik, though, is known for his stamina. The eighth began a jab-jab-jab from Khan yet again, and his right regularly pierced his opponent's defence to crash against the bridge of his nose. Even when Kotelnik came charging at him, hoping to catch him off balance, Khan's footwork had the champion swinging at air. The juncture had been reached by which the 31-year-old Kotelnik needed to mug Khan to take his belt back by KO. But though he tried during the ninth he continued to suffer the rainfall of Khan's fists.

Khan's family were on their feet in the tenth when his fleeting left-rights paused Kotelnik momentarily, and that was yet another round for the contender. The eleventh was close to an exhibition from Khan. The fast punches and reverse movement had a sweet synchronicity by now which was a delight to witness and left him only needing to survive the final three minutes. This he managed to the joy of the now delirious crowd.

Kotelnik's record had also showed only two defeats. Now, he has one more of those. And, a grudging respect for what Khan can do, and at still only 22, may become, having firmly returned from the 54 sickening seconds handed him by Breidis Prescott, a stone-fisted Columbian, who had Khan careering over the canvas, and his mother in tears, at this same ringside.

And this was also a triumph for Freddie Roach, the American trainer of pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquioa, brought in by Khan following the Prescott debacle. "I listened to him [Roach] and just listening to Manny Pacquiao took me to a different level," said Khan. "I took a few shots but didn't rush. I used to but those mistakes have gone."

Khan now has the same number of defeats as his nemesis Prescott, who lost for the first time on Friday evening on a split decision to Mexican Miguel Vazquez, in Las Vegas. That could be a rematch for the future. This, though, was the night when the boy from Bolton grew up. The bright lights of America cannot be far away.

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Amir Iqbal Khan (born 8 December 1986), British of Pakistani descent from Bolton, Greater Manchester. He became the WBA light-welterweight World champion after beating Andreas Kotelnik on 18 July 2009, he is the former Commonwealth lightweight champion, WBO Inter-Continental lightweight champion, and WBA International lightweight champion and #13 in the world and #1 in Britain according to the Boxrec.com rankings.

Background
Khan was raised in Bolton, England. He is an avid supporter of his local football club, Bolton Wanderers, and uses the club's training facilities at the Reebok Stadium. His parents immigrated from Rawalpindi (Punjab), Pakistan.
He speaks fluent English and Urdu. He was educated at Smithills School in Bolton, and Bolton Community College. His first cousin is the English cricketer Sajid Mahmood and his younger brother, Haroon Khan is also an amateur boxer. He was a hyperactive child and "a born fighter", according to his father, who encouraged him to take up boxing. He often uses his position as a well-known British Muslim to encourage better relations between British Muslims and the wider community, particularly in his home town of Bolton.

Amateur
Khan began boxing competitively at the age of 11, with early honours including three English school titles, three junior ABA titles and gold at the 2003 Junior Olympics. In early 2004 he won a gold medal at the European Student Championships in Lithuania, and in South Korea several months later he won world junior lightweight title after fighting five times in seven days. Khan then rose to fame as Britain's sole representative in boxing at the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning a silver medal at the age of 17 in the lightweight boxing category. He was Britain's youngest Olympic boxer since Colin Jones in 1976. He lost in the final to Mario Kindelan, the Cuban who had also beaten him several months earlier in the pre-Olympic match-ups in Greece. In 2005 he avenged the two losses by beating the 34 year old Kindelan in his last amateur fight.

Olympic results
• Round of 32: Defeated Marios Kaperonis of Greece (RSC-3)
• Round of 16: Defeated Dimitar Stilianov of Bulgaria (37-21)
• Quarterfinals: Defeated Baik Jong-Sub of South Korea (RSC-1)
• Semifinals: Defeated Serik Yeleuov of Kazakhstan (40-26)
• Gold Medal Match: Lost to Mario Kindelán of Cuba (23-30)

Professional
2005–2006
Despite declaring after the 2004 Olympics that he would pursue a Gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Khan turned professional in 2005, signing with England's leading boxing promoter, Frank Warren. This decision was influenced by a row with the English Amateur Boxing Association over the ticketing allocation for his family and friends at the English ABA Finals.

Khan moved from lightweight to light welterweight for a single fight against French fighter Rachid Drilzane on 9 December 2006, winning a 10 round decision. Khan experienced the first knockdown of his career when his opponent caught him with a good left. Drilzane had never scored a knockout in his 13 fight career. Khan returned to the lightweight division for future fights.

2007
On 7 April 2007, Khan beat Steffy Bull in a three round technical knockout in Cardiff.
On 14 July 2007 he faced Willie Limond for the Commonwealth lightweight title. During the fight Khan was knocked down in the 6th round and appeared to be hurt badly. However, after another barrage of right hands, Khan weathered the storm and in the seventh round knocked down Limond. The referee stopped the fight on advice of Frank Warren. On 6 October 2007 Khan faced Scott Lawton in his first defence of the Commonwealth lightweight title. Khan fought a mature and clinical fight, boxing with single punches for the majority of the first three rounds. Khan increased the pressure at the end of the third, and secured a TKO victory in the fourth. The referee stepped in when Lawton failed to fight back.

The most significant win of Khan's career up until that time came when he celebrated his 21st birthday by successfully defending his Commonwealth lightweight title against Graham Earl on 8 December 2007. Earl, rated the number one British lightweight and a former world title challenger, was considered Khan's toughest test by some way and a tough fight was expected; especially due to some ill-feeling between the pair in the run-up to the fight. However, it took Khan just 72 seconds to have the fight referee declare Earl in no fit state to continue. Khan later claimed that he rated this victory as the best of his career.

2008
On 2 February 2008, Khan was scheduled to fight Martin Kristjansen but illness forced the Dane to withdraw and instead Khan beat Australian Gairy St Clair in a contest for the Commonwealth lightweight title at the ExCel Arena in London. This was his first fight to last all 12 rounds and was won via a unanimous 120-108 scoring from all three ringside judges. On 5 April, Khan beat Kristjansen in the 7th round of a WBO world lightweight title eliminator. Before the contest, the fighters had been ranked 3rd and 4th respectively by the WBO. After Khan's victory, he is now ranked 2nd, behind only Joel Casamayor.

Following the fight, Khan split from his trainer Oliver Harrison, the trainer for all of his previous 17 professional contests. The breakup was blamed on Harrison's concerns that Khan's public engagements were interfering with his fight preparations. An official spokesperson for Team Khan told reporters there was "nothing personal" between Khan and Harrison. Dean Powell, who has trained former world champions Duke McKenzie and Lloyd Honeyghan, will work with Khan until a decision on a permanent trainer is made, with Khan possibly looking to America. In the same month, Khan had a training session in Las Vegas with Roger Mayweather, trainer and uncle of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Khan fought on 21 June at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham against Irishman Michael Gomez. Gomez, a super featherweight who was reaching the end of his career and had lost the last three of his six fights, was described as a "backward step" in Khan's quest for a world title. Khan stated "I think I'm above this domestic level now" and made it clear that he expected a fast and explosive finish to the fight. However, after the fight, Khan said he felt he had moved up a level by "fighting world class fighters like Gomez". Khan received criticism for being knocked down in the second round, but proved his resilience by coming back stronger after this. Former boxing champion Barry McGuigan seemed unimpressed after the fight and said Khan needed at least two more fights before he should consider a world title bout. Many journalists echoed McGuigan's opinion of Khan's defensive vulnerability.

Khan vs. Prescott
A month after the Gomez fight, it was announced that Jorge Rubio would become Khan's new trainer. Rubio was chosen because Khan thought that he had very good chemistry with the Cuban trainer. Khan said "Rubio was showing me all these new training techniques, and I felt so comfortable because it suited my style. I knew I had the handspeed and the footwork to do it and I knew it was going to make me a much better fighter". Many boxing experts thought that Rubio needed to concentrate on improving Khan's defence and Khan's father agreed that he was showing great defensive skills during his training. In the early August, Bredis Prescott was chosen as Khan's opponent by Jorge Rubio because he had trained a fighter who had narrowly lost to Prescott before and thought that Khan would be able to handle the bigger, taller Prescott who had a prolific knockout record of 17 KO's in 19 contests. On 6 September 2008, Khan lost to Breidis Prescott in 54 seconds at the M.E.N. Arena on his Sky Box Office debut, handing him his first defeat as a professional boxer. Khan was knocked down within 25 seconds and struggled to make the count, Prescott downed him again within 41 seconds, moments later to win by knockout.

Khan vs. Fagan
Following his defeat to Prescott, Frank Warren sacked Khan's trainer Jorge Rubio and replaced him with Freddie Roach. Khan began training with Roach in the United States, where he sparred with world lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao, who is also being trained by Roach. On December 6, 2008, Khan recorded a comeback win against Oisin Fagan in a second-round stoppage. Khan knocked Fagan down twice in the first round and Fagan's corner threw in the towel in the second. After the fight it was revealed that Fagan had broken his ankle when falling after the first knock-down.

2009
Khan vs. Barrera
In early 2009, it was announced that Khan would fight former seven-time and three-weight world champion Marco Antonio Barrera on 14 March 2009 at the Manchester Evening News Arena. Frank Warren promoted Khan's fight against the veteran Barrera, perhaps Khan's highest-profile opponent to date. Barrera was ranked #1 and Khan #9 in the WBO world lightweight rankings. Previous IBF and WBO world lightweight title holder Nate Campbell was stripped of the belts after moving up to the light welterweight division and Khan's promoter Frank Warren and Barrera's promoter Don King lobbied the WBO to elevate the Khan-Barrera fight to a world lightweight title eliminator. However, the world-title status was instead given to the fight between Juan Manuel Márquez and Juan Diaz, ranked #2 and #3 respectively by the WBO.

On 14 March at the MEN Arena Manchester, England, Khan defeated Barrera after the fight was stopped towards the end of the 5th round due to Barrera suffering a severe cut reopened from his previous fight. This was caused by a clash of heads late in the opening round. With Barrera deemed in no position to fight on by the ringside doctor, the fight went to the scorecards where Khan was ahead on all three (50-44, 50-45, 50-45).

Frank Warren was sufficiently impressed with Khan's performance that he vowed to land a world title fight for him before the end of the year. "There was a lot on his shoulders, but I always felt he could rise to the big occasion. I'd like to see him get a belt round his waist by the end of this year." Khan also commented on the fight, saying: "I felt so completely easy, catching him with jabs. I felt like I was on a better level than him. The jabbing and patience – I felt so strong. You could see the difference. I had to take some shots in that match. I made some mistakes in the past and I'm not going to make them again."

During the post-fight interview, Barrera mentioned that he would talk with friends and family regarding his future. He also stated in a press release: "If I'd have had both my eyes the fight wouldn't have ended this way. I couldn't see the guy from the first round, the blood was in my eye and I just couldn't see with it." As of 26 March, promoter Don King is pushing for a rematch between Khan and Marco Antonio Barrera, claiming the fight should have been ruled a no-contest.

Trainer Freddie Roach has also hinted at his camp's desire to pit Khan against Ricky Hatton after the latter's fight with Roach's other star pupil, Manny Pacquiao.

Khan vs. Kotelnik
On 18 July, Khan defeated Andreas Kotelnik at the MEN Arena, in Manchester for the WBA Light-Welterweight Championship. Khan won by a unanimous decision, 120-108, 118-111, 118-111 and become the third youngest Briton to win a world title, at the age of 22.