Amir Khan took another seamless step along his road to the world lightweight title with a seventh-round stoppage of Martin Kristjansen at Bolton Arena on Saturday night, although it now seems certain he will not fulfil his ambition of becoming Great Britain's youngest postwar world champion.

Naseem Hamed holds that record, having beaten Steve Robinson for the WBO featherweight title aged 21 years, 230 days. To achieve his long-stated goal, Khan would have to win a world title by July 25. He will next box in June and, although Saturday's bout was an eliminator for the WBO title, he will not necessarily be boxing for a world title any time soon, with all the present claimants tied up in the coming months.

While Khan has always seemed in a rush, Frank Warren, his promoter, has taken a more relaxed view. “It's become a soundbite,” Warren said. “The only records I am interested in are the ones that Joe Calzaghe has set. It doesn't matter when you first win the title, it matters what you have achieved when you finish. Naz was the youngest world champion, but what was his record like when he finished and compare his record to Joe Calzaghe's.”

Khan would face a tougher test than Hamed to win a world title, however.Nate Campbell, an American, has just won the WBA, IBF and WBO titles from the highly rated Juan Diaz, David Diaz, the WBC champion, recently beat Erik Morales and next faces Manny Pacquiao, while the WBO interim champion is the fearsome Cuban, Joel Casamayor.

“If Steve Robinson was about now, would I let him fight Amir? Yes,” Warren said. “We are not going after a soft option. Campbell is the man in the division and we would like him. I would definitely consider Casamayor.”

It could well be, though, that when Khan does box for a world title, it may not be screened by ITV, which has shown all his 17 professional bouts. Viewing figures for the bout against Kristjansen peaked at 5.9 million, ITV's biggest audience on Saturday, but the June bout will be the last of ITV's deal. They will not be the only bidder when looking for an extension.

Kristjansen posed Khan plenty of questions, if little actual danger. A tall, well-schooled boxer, he showed neat skills and a tight defence that forced Khan to stand off and work for his openings. On the few occasions Khan got a bit sloppy, leaving his left hand low, Kristjansen banged over a sharp right lead. But Khan had total control from the start, although by the sixth he seemed to be taking things a bit too easily.

Yet when the opportunity presented itself, with a minute to go in the seventh, Khan took it well, crashing in a straight right and left hook that put the Dane on the floor in a corner, although it may have been frustration that caused Khan to hit Kristjansen twice when he was down.

Despite being given a break when Micky Vann, the referee, lectured Khan for his misdemeanour, Kristjansen had no answer to Khan's onslaught and did not throw another punch as he was sent to the floor twice more before Vann stepped in to stop the contest.

“It was brilliant to have someone like that in front of me,” Khan said. “He took a lot of shots and he threw them back. He reminded me a bit of my amateur days where you have to break people down. And that's what I did.

“Oliver [Harrison, his trainer] said in the fourth round: 'Just keep on doing what you're doing and you'll catch him with your shots and that's when he's going to fall to bits.'”

Khan will this week vacate his Commonwealth title, rather than go through with a purse bid for a bout against Jon Thaxton, the British champion, that lost its lustre when Thaxton was stopped in five rounds by Yuri Romanov, of Belarus, in a European title challenge on Friday.

Anything less than a world title now holds little attraction for Khan. “I've been a professional for three years,” Khan said, “and I've no doubt that this year I am going to be a world champion.”

— The final Olympic qualifying tournament begins in Athens today, with five boxers aiming to reach Beijing in the four weight divisions that a British boxer has yet to qualify in. Darran Langley boxes at light-flyweight, Stephen Smith at featherweight and David Price at super-heavyweight, while there are two representatives at heavyweight, Danny Price, for England, and Stephen Simmons, for Scotland.

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