Khan has set himself high goals in his boxing career

Amir Khan has begun training earlier than usual as he prepares for the first defence of his WBA light-welterweight crown against Ukrainian Dmitriy Salita.

Khan beat Andreas Kotelnik in July to win the title and will meet Salita in Newcastle on 5 December.

"I had a long break after Kotelnik and wanted to get back earlier," said Khan.

"Every fight I'm getting better. But Salita is tough and durable and he wants to take the title off me. That's making me train twice as hard."

Khan has travelled to the United States for his training camp and he says he is not shirking any challenges as he bids to continue his rise up the boxing ladder.

Salita, a Ukrainian fighter raised in New York, is unbeaten in 31 bouts and Khan said: "It's a huge fight, I'm the world champion and Dimitry wants to come and take that title.

606: DEBATE Will Khan win this fight?

"It's going to be a tough fight and a long night but hopefully my game plan will work."

He added: "This is what people want to see, they want to see Amir Khan fight tough fighters.

"Salita is the mandatory challenger and we're not taking the easy route, we're taking the hard route.

"I want to fight my mandatories, I don't want to take shortcuts. I want to fight whoever is out there.

"When I turned professional my ambition was to be a world champion. I've achieved that and now my ambition is to unify the belts and be the best fighter in my weight division.

"These are the fights I need if I want to become the champion I want to be."

Salita says he will be targeting weaknesses in the Khan make-up to create an upset on Tyneside.

"I'm very excited, I've been number one contender for a very long time and I'm very confident," said the 27-year-old.

"He's a good boxer but there are things in his game I can take advantage of.

"I see all the English writers talking about the next fight but I'm coming to get the title and bring it back to Brooklyn.

"I feel 100% ready for the task. I'm in with a very good fighter but I always imagined I would have to fight these kind of guys to be a champion."

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