Khan ready to move up a gear

Amir Khan has vowed to move up a gear when he makes the transition from challenger to champion against Dmitriy Salita on December 5.

The Bolton fighter will defend his WBA light-welterweight belt for the first time against undefeated Ukrainian Salita at Newcastle's Metro Arena after winning the belt in July.

"I know Dmitriy is going to come into this fight wanting to win this world title, so it's going to be tough. I'm going to go in there and give it 110%," said Khan. "I want to keep hold of this belt. I worked so hard to achieve it and I'm going to work even harder to keep hold of it."

Salita, who was born in Odessa but moved to New York aged nine, has a record of 30 wins and one draw since turning professional at the age of 19.

Sixteen of his 30 wins have resulted in stoppages and the 27-year-old is widely seen as the underdog for the fight, which will be only his second outside the US.

Khan has spoken of his desire to become the undisputed light-welterweight champion but Salita is keen to stop him in his tracks.

"There's no doubt that this is the biggest fight of my career. I'm very excited about it," said Salita.

"I'm just focused on doing what I need to do. We did a teleconference last week and all the English writers were asking about his next fight. As far as I'm concerned there will be no next fight.

"Amir won't be defending his title. I'm coming to take it. I have a lot of respect for Amir, he's a great boxer and Freddie Roach is a great coach, but I'm focused on doing what I need to do."