Khan Retains WBA Light-Welterweight Crown in Newcastle

Amir Khan retained his WBA Light-Welterweight title after destroying American Dmitiry Salita with a first-round knockout in Newcastle.

Salita failed to cope with Khan's immediate speed and precision punches at the Metro Radio Arena, with Salita hitting the canvas for the first time after just 10 seconds after a clinical right hand to the chin.

Salita recovered, but with having lost his legs, was floored two more times in an incredible opening minute, before Puerta Rican referee Luis Pabon stopped the fight after 76 seconds.

Khan's moves on to 22 victories from 23 professional fights with 16 knockouts, and now looks likely to head back to the US as he looks to achieve the global superstar status he coverts.

Let's be clear here, Salita might have been the No.1 challenger with 31 wins in his career, but he was largely untested, and was never going to be a match for Khan. If anything this was always going to be a walkover, an easy outing for Khan to retain his belt.

Few of the 10,000 fans packed into the Arena would have cared for Khan's 54-second defeat to Bredis Prescott in Manchester last September, neither would they have cared for Khan's sense of injustice, and resentment at the lack of recognition he thinks he receives in the UK compared to America, as reported in the British press ahead of the fight.

The people of Newcastle are a passionate bunch and will always get behind the local hero as it were, but Khan has to realise that we have seen him since he was an amateur boxer, followed him at the Olympics aged 17, and have been with him every step of his professional career.

Where he grew up in Bolton, and indeed, the Greater Manchester area will know Khan, as Amir, a local lad they've seen many times before, and while he will be mobbed when he goes to certain areas, he has to accept that many people just don't care for any form of celebrity.

Khan has to accept that he is a superstar in the UK, but like every superstar out there, he personally won't appeal to everyone, his sport doesn't appeal to everyone, and ultimately he will have his detractors.

He is a young, brilliant boxer, and an inspiration to hundreds of young boxers from all walks of life, and has the respect and adulation of thousands of others, boxing fans or otherwise, but culturally, the UK does not have the same level of obsession with celebrity.

Khan's comments on race seem misplaced given that those around him have not seen evidence of it in his career, indeed his father spoke out against those particular comments.

But if Khan is going to Google himself and go on to boxing messageboards he will always find unsavoury remarks, and would do best to forget about them, or exploring them in the future, and concentrate on what really matters in his career.

He also needs a bit of media training. He's 22, and needs to learn to deflect searching questions from journalists rather than answering everything, and saying what he thinks.

Khan has the potential to go on and make it big in America. His demolition of Salita will be the proof to Americans that he can fight, and the big box office bucks can surely only be around the corner for him.

He might still have a dodgy chin, shaky defence, and be impatient, but he is a young, exciting boxer, and if he continues to produce the level of performance he did against Salita tonight, he will crack America, and the world.

If he really wants to make it big, his next fights will surely take place at Madison Square Garden or even the MGM Grand, despite Khan seemingly saying in a post-fight interview that he would be happy to bring his team back to Newcastle in 2010.

But he isn't going to achieve superstar status by fighting out of Newcastle, Manchester or even London three times a year. The strip in Las Vegas can surely only be Khan's destination, currently home to sparring partner Manny Pacquiao.