WHETHER Amir Khan will ever be good enough to be matched against boxers of the calibre of Floyd Mayweather remains to be proven, but the Olympic silver medallist retained his Commonwealth lightweight title with a first-round victory over Graham Earl in front of his hometown supporters in Bolton last night. As a test of Khan’s credentials it proved absolutely nothing, but the fans didn’t seem to mind.

Fighting on his 21st birthday, Khan took less than a minute to put Earl on his back with a left hook before following up with a flurry of powerful, precise punches which ended the fight almost before it began. Only 72 seconds had passed when the referee stopped the contest with Earl trapped in a corner, judged unable to defend himself. It was Khan’s 15th pro fight and he has won the lot, 12 of them inside the distance.

Earl, the British champion, was supposedly the strongest opponent that Khan has faced in his nascent professional career, after the experienced 30-year-old from Luton came close to taking the WBO interim lightweight title against Australian Michael Katsidis earlier this year. But the younger man caught Earl cold almost from the opening bell, with a right hand which shook Earl.

Holding his gloves high, Khan threw a left hook which missed, but followed up with a second which caught Earl flush on the chin. The challenger went down for a count of eight, but was clearly shaken when he rose, and the end was not long coming, Earl sinking back on to the ropes under a flurry of punches before the referee stepped in.

“I wasn’t surprised, I’ve been training hard,” said Khan. “He was the No 1 in Britain and I wanted to prove a point. I knew that he was hurt after the first knockdown, I saw in his eyes he didn’t want anything else, and it has to be the best victory of my career so far.

“It’s the next step up for me in the boxing game. Graham has won European titles, the WBU belt, British, Commonwealth titles. This takes me to that next level, and it makes a point to the critics.”

Khan had promised to be in the shape of his life for the fight, and he looked it. In his first defence of the title, against Scott Lawton at the Nottingham Arena in October, Khan stopped his opponent in the fourth round after unexpectedly having to get off the canvas to beat Willie Limond to take the Commonwealth title in his previous fight. The ring at the Bolton Arena was a large one, which suggested that Khan was anticipating boxing for a full 10 rounds, but the strength of his shots simply blew Earl away.

Earl insisted the fight should not have been stopped. “He’s nice and sharp, and he caught me, but I went down twice in the first round against Katsidis and came back to knock him down,” he said. “Knockdowns happen in boxing. Khan is not that good, the referee didn’t do him any favours by stopping it that quickly.”

That opinion will not have been shared by most of those watching, including perhaps many of the 1,000 or so of Earl’s own supporters. Promoter Frank Warren, who admitted the speed of Khan’s victory had taken him by surprise, said Khan’s next fight would be on February 2.

To beat the record set by Naseem Hamed in becoming a world champion in the fastest time, Khan must win a title fight before July, but Warren will not be that much the wiser as to Khan’s potential after last night. Like Hamed, Khan is fast and he hits hard, but there is no doubt that his defence and chin need another thorough examination. It had been hoped that Earl would provide that examination, but suggestions that, although he was brave, Earl was a fighter on his way down, were borne out by the ease with which Khan brushed him aside.

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