Boxing / Graham Lewis / 14 April 2009 / Leave a comment

It seemed like a title fight was a world away when he was stopped after just 54 seconds of the first round by Columbian fighter Breidis Prescott last September.

Last month many people seemed nervous of Khan's chances against Barrera in his last fight, but Amir really showed what he was made of and put the loss behind him to beat Barrera in the fifth round by technical stoppage.

Now Khan aged 22 and fighting in only his 22nd fight gets the chance that he has been waiting for. He has often talked about his dream of a world title fight, but promoter Frank Warren has taken the sensible route of building him up and making sure he is ready. June 27th sees the dream become reality at the O2 arena in London, England. Here he will take on Germany based Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik for the WBA light-welterweight title.

31 year old Kotelnik won Silver at lightweight in the 2000 Sydney Olympic games. Four years later Khan did the very same thing in Athens. Kotelnik should prove to be a good opponent for Khan having lost only two of his thirty four fights, which have included two title defences.

There is no reason why this should be an easy fight for either fighter. The early Betfair market sees Khan as the favourite, but I can see this evening out a little as the fight draws closer. It will be interesting to see what value there is in the other markets as they are added too.

Was Khans loss just a blip, or has he exposed a weakness that Kotelnik can take advantage of? Another great night of boxing to note on the calendar!