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Khan beats Earl in quick time

09/12/2007

Amir Khan took just 72 seconds to beat Graham Earl and retain his Commonwealth lightweight title in Bolton last night.

The former Olympic silver medallist floored the challenger twice in the opening round and the referee decided he had seen enough after the second knockdown to end the bout.

Khan dropped his opponent with a strong left hand inside the first minute and then, when Earl had regained his balance, was soon moving in to finish the fight quickly.

He succeeded moments later when he connected with a series of unanswered blows as Earl back-pedalled towards the ropes.

Earl was ranked as the best fighter in England at lightweight after Khan and many experts expected him to give the 21-year-old a tougher examination but Khan said he always believed that he would out-shine the challenger.

He said: "I wasn't surprised, I trained very hard. He was number one in Britain and I wanted to beat him.

"I knew he was under pressure after the first knockdown and I just went for it. I was fighting the best fighter of my career. I knew I had it in the tank."

Earl felt aggrieved that the referee had called a halt to proceedings so early and claimed he could have come back.

"My head was clear. It's boxing, you've got to take shots, you don't just jump in and stop it straight away," said Earl.

Having defended his title for the second time Khan says he is now keen to take further steps towards securing a world title shot in the near future.