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Khan excited by Salita match-up
14:45, Dec 3 2009
Amir Khan is relishing the prospect of taking on a fighter "as skilful as me" when he defends his WBA light-welterweight title against Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle on Saturday.
The 22-year-old from Bolton, an Olympic silver medallist in Athens in 2004, produced a punch-perfect performance to beat the technically-sound Andreas Kotelnik during the summer but expects a tougher time of it against unbeaten New Yorker Salita.
"He'll bring out the best in me. I don't get many fighters who are as skilful as me but I think Salita is, he's very skilful," said Khan. "He's got a style which is probably going to make me look good. He's tough and doesn't give up, he's got a big heart in the ring."
Khan has spoken regularly of the need to step up in performance when making the first defence of the WBA title, and believes his time spent in Los Angeles with trainer Freddie Roach since the Kotelnik fight will bear fruit at the Metro Radio Arena.
"We're improving with every fight and getting better and better," he added. "We learned a lot from the Kotelnik fight about the weaknesses. We've worked on it, improved on it and we're going into this fight not making the mistakes we made against Kotelnik.
"Freddie is a great trainer and he's always working on what I should do and shouldn't do. Everything we do in the gym is done for a reason.
"I see myself as being a better fighter now than I was when I fought Kotelnik."
On Saturday's undercard, Kevin Mitchell meets Breidis Prescott - the Colombian who defeated Khan in September last year - in a WBO lightweight title eliminator.
Meanwhile, former amateur stars James DeGale, Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders look to close out 2009 by protecting their unbeaten professional records.
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