Roach demands more from Khan

Just 10 months after suffering a shocking defeat by Breidis Prescott at the same MEN Arena venue in Manchester, the 22-year-old completed his redemption by comprehensively out-pointing Ukrainian champion Kotelnik in his first fight at the 140lb limit.

"He (Khan) took some good shots, he rolled with some shots, used his movement a lot," said American Roach, who believes the Englishman took enough shots to his suspect chin from Kotelnik for Roach to suggest he has answered those critics.

"Sometimes when he was doing that though, he was taking his eye off his opponent and that's when he got in a little bit of trouble. We're going to work on that because when you take your eye off your opponent, when you come up blind you don't see the punch coming."

Now Khan, who is based in Los Angeles under renowned trainer Roach, wants to fight in America for the first time and begin using his champion status to attract big fights and unify the titles.

Americans Timothy Bradley and Kendall Holt hold the WBC and WBO titles respectively, Colombian Juan Urango is IBF champion and Khan's gym-mate Manny Pacquiao is the unofficial undisputed light-welterweight champion.

In Khan's old lightweight division, Juan Manuel Marquez - whose super-fight with Floyd Mayweather is still in some doubt - is the recognised champion and willing to move up to light-welterweight.

After his impressive win over Kotelnik, Khan said: "It was a great fight, it was tough but I've won the world title and that's what I've wanted to do my whole life since I was eight.

"I've achieved my goal - at a new weight, too - and the WBA title is a good title. I'm going to have a few weeks off and then set new goals.

"We want to fight big names, fight in America. I thank (promoter) Frank Warren for getting this fight in Britain and now I think it is time to go to America and fight over there. Frank is a great promoter and he got me this fight."