Bullish Amir Khan ready to fly the flag for Britain

Britain's Amir Khan, with trainer Freddie Roach, is ready for his unification bout with Zab Judah. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire/Press Association Images

This is Amir Khan's time and he is primed to harness it. Such is the bullish view of the WBA light-welterweight champion, who believes he can now start to capture the hearts and minds of the British public when he faces Zab Judah in Las Vegas next Saturday in their unification clash.

Ricky Hatton, the former two-division world champion who drew fanatical support, is officially retired, and David Haye's future is unclear following the loss of his WBA heavyweight title to Wladimir Klitschko a fortnight ago. So Khan, who hopes to take Judah's IBF crown to leave only the WBO and WBC champion Timothy Bradley unconquered in the division, says: "David is a great champion and he will be remembered as a great champion, and so will Ricky Hatton, who's retired. So it is a good time for me to shine and prove how good Amir Khan is.

"The British public want to see and follow someone now, and I'm the guy who's on the block and who's fighting big names, fighting for different world titles. I'm someone for them to follow. Britain's been great, we've had a great following. But I think we can get even bigger because the British public can have one boxer who they can follow."

Khan's desire is to force himself into the wider British public's consciousness, as he did when claiming an Olympic lightweight silver medal in Athens in 2004, and he has no qualms about being the focus of greater attention. "It's just going to motivate me to go in the gym and train harder. When it comes to the fight it's just going to make me put a better show on because I know there's a lot of people out there who are rooting for me and supporting me.

"You can't beat that support – especially from Britain. I love the British public and the British fans, they are true boxing fans. If you get them on your side, you can go right to the end and achieve anything in life. There are some big fights out there – against [say] Floyd Mayweather Jr, and if I have the support that Ricky Hatton did [when he lost to the American in 2007] I'm sure I can go in there and beat him."

Now training in Los Angeles under Freddie Roach at the Wildcard gym, Khan's growing prominence has drawn some famous visitors. "Ashley Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips have come and watched me train recently, and Lewis Hamilton fancies coming down to see me. Also, Jason Statham [the actor] and Vinnie Jones have come to the gym. Whenever I go out now in America people recognise me.

"I stay here in LA because of the gym. It's just me and Freddie when I train. Manny Pacquiao [Khan's stablemate, considered the best pound-for-pound current boxer] is such a huge star here that they have to shut the gym for him. For the next few fights we might have to do that as well."

Judah only recently regained his IBF title, a decade after he lost it to Kostya Tszyu, by defeating Kaizer Mabuza in March. The 33-year-old, who was briefly the undisputed welterweight world champion in 2005, has a record of six losses and 41 wins from 49 outings, which also contains two no contests. He has a reputation for employing the dirty stuff if he is going under during a fight, but Khan, who has one defeat from his 26 fights with 17 knockouts, has no fears.

"It could be a rough fight," he says. "I might have to dig deep and push him back at times. It depends what type of game plan he brings to the fight. If he tries to run and be sneaky, it will make the fight rough and messy. I'm looking forward to the fight because there are two world titles on the line. I want to be one of the youngest to unify the world titles."

Bradley had been Khan's first-choice opponent and the American remains so despite the 24-year-old Boltonian branding him a "chicken" for turning down the opportunity to fight him on Saturday. Whether that match is made – and whether Mayweather Jr is also fought at some juncture – depends on his first dispatching Judah. Khan says: "It's dangerous to talk too much about future fights. My promoter, Golden Boy, mentioned it but my whole gameplan is to win this fight and then I can look to the future. I don't want to get distracted."

While Khan hopes three or four thousand British fans will be in Las Vegas, he can expect to attract around 70,000 buys on Primetime, the pay-per-view channel broadcasting the fight in the UK.

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