AMIR Khan has reassured fans he has no intention of taking the easy route in his quest to become one of the best boxers in the world.

Khan, who won the WBA light-welterweight title when beating Andreas Kotelnik in July, has designs on becoming the finest fighter in his division and a pound-for-pound star on the world stage.

And the 22-year-old believes his choice of number one challenger Dimitry Salita for his defence in Newcastle on December 5 shows his commitment to becoming a great the hard way.

"It's a huge fight, I'm the world champion and Dimitry wants to come and take that title. It's going to be a tough fight and a long night, but hopefully my game plan will work on the night," he said.

"This is what people want to see, they want to see Amir Khan fight tough fighters. Salita is the mandatory challenger and we're not taking the easy route, were taking the hard route.

"I want to fight my mandatories, I don't want to take shortcuts. I want to fight whoever is out there.

"When I turned professional my ambition was to be a world champion. I've achieved that and now my ambition is to unify the belts and be the best fighter in my weight division.

"These are the fights I need if I want to become the champion I want to be."

Khan, who has travelled to the United States for an earlier than usual training camp, revealed how becoming champion had increased his work ethic.

"I had a long break after beating Kotelnik and I wanted to get back to it earlier. I wanted to work on a few things I don't normally have the chance to work on," he said.

"Every fight I'm getting better and better. But Salita is tough and durable and he wants to take the title off me. That's making me train twice as hard, knowing there's someone out there who wants to take my title off me."

Salita, a Ukrainian fighter raised in New York, is unbeaten in 31 bouts and believes any talk of Khan's plans beyond December are premature.

"I'm very excited, I've been number one contender for a very long time and I'm very confident," said the 27-year-old.

"He's a good boxer, but there are things in his game I can take advantage of.

"I see all the English writers talking about the next fight, but I'm coming to get the title and bring it back to Brooklyn.

"I feel 100 per cent ready for the task. I'm in with a very good fighter, but I always imagined I would have to fight these kind of guys to be a champion."