Amir Khan has vowed to move up a gear when he makes the transition from challenger to champion against Dmitriy Salita on December 5.

The Bolton fighter will defend his WBA light-welterweight belt for the first time against undefeated Ukrainian Salita at Newcastle's Metro Arena after winning the belt in July.

Khan would have struggled to believe he would be defending a world title belt this time last year after he was left reeling by a first-round knockout against Cuban Breidis Prescott - the first defeat of his professional career.

The 22-year-old sacked Cuban coach Jorge Rubio following the defeat and replaced him with Freddie Roach, who also coaches the boxer widely regarded as the best pound for pound fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao.

Since Roach's appointment Khan recorded victories over and Oisin Fagan and Marco Antonio Barrera before taking the WBA crown off Andreas Kotelnik in Manchester in the summer.

Salita became the mandatory challenger for Khan's belt after beating Raul Munoz in May and the Englishman made an early return to training in a bid to ensure he is in the best possible shape for the fight.

"He's a great fighter, he's a great boxer," Khan said. "I don't know much about his amateur background but to be a number one mandatory, he must be good, and his record says it all.

"I know Dmitriy is going to come into this fight wanting to win this world title so it's going to be tough. I'm going to go in there and give it 110%.

"I want to keep hold of this belt. I worked so hard to achieve it and I'm going to work even harder to keep hold of it."

Salita, who was born in Odessa but moved to New York aged nine, has a record of 30 wins and one draw since turning professional at the age of 19.

Sixteen of his 30 wins have resulted in stoppages and the 27-year-old is widely seen as the underdog for the fight, which will be only his second outside the US.

Khan has spoken of his desire to become the undisputed light-welterweight champion but Salita is keen to stop him in his tracks.

"There's no doubt that this is the biggest fight of my career. I'm very excited about it," he said.

"I'm just focused on doing what I need to do. We did a teleconference last week and all the English writers were asking about his next fight. As far as I'm concerned there will be no next fight.

"Amir won't be defending his title. I'm coming to take it. I have a lot of respect for Amir, he's a great boxer and Freddie's a great coach, but I'm focused on doing what I need to do."