By Dave Lahr: World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) will be defending his title against his number #1 contender Dmitry Salita (30-0-1, 16 KO’s) on December 5th, at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear. The news was confirmed by Khan’s promoter Frank Warren yesterday.

This will be the first title defense for the 22-year-old Khan, who picked up the WBA title with an impressive 12 round decision victory over Andriy Kotelnik on July 18th of this year. Khan has little choice but to face Salita, as he is Khan’s mandatory challenger.

However, it actually works out well for Khan anyway, because Khan needs to continue to improve and isn’t likely ready to face the WBA interim champion Marcos Maidana at this time. A fight against Salita will buy Khan a little time to get an easy payday while his handlers decide whether or not to throw him in against a big puncher like Maidana.

Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach is good at coming up with fight strategies to beat sluggers like Maidana, but it’s doubtful that Khan could make it through a 12 round bout without Maidana catching him with a big shot to his fragile jaw.

Salita has a perfect record, but looks a bit deceiving. Most of those victories have come against 2nd tier opposition and not against quality fighters.

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Dimitrenko vs. Krasniqi II on November 28th

Heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko (29-1, 19 KO’s) will be fighting a rematch against 38-year-old Luan Kurashiki (30-4-1, 14 KO’s) on November 28th, at the Koenig Pilsemer Arena. Oberhausen, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Dimitrenko, 27, suffered a crushing blow to his boxing career when he was recently beaten by American Eddie Chambers in a 12 round majority decision loss on July 4th.

Forget the majority decision, the fight was lopsided fight. Having to face the 38-year-old Krasniqi is a major step backwards for Dimitrenko, because he defeated him last November by a 3rd round stoppage. Normally, a fighter like Dimitrenko wouldn’t want to waste time going over old ground, but choosing Krasniqi as an opponent serves a purpose, because Krasniqi is popular in Germany.

It doesn’t matter that Krasniqi has lost three out of his last five fights and has been on the downside of his career since being stopped by Lamon Brewster in the 9th round four years ago in September. Krasniqi is still liked by the boxing public in Germany and will likely give Dimitrenko a tough fight for as long as the bout lasts.

Dimitrenko says he’s learned from his loss to Chambers, but as one-sided as the fight was, I have my doubts that Dimitrenko can fix the problems that plagued him in that fight. Dimitrenko’s conditioning was a problem in that fight, as he appeared to tire out after the 5th round. But on top of that, he made the mistake of allowing Chambers to get in too close and didn’t work harder to stay on the outside.

Dimitrenko’s lack of power was one of the major factors that prevented him from keeping Chambers on the outside. Chambers had nothing keeping him from being able to walk right through Dimitrenko’s shots and set up a position at close range. Still, Dimitrenko had the option of moving away or clinching Chambers if he had been thinking with his head in that fight.

Chambers was able to get inside on Dimitrenko and stay there for prolonged periods of time without being grabbed. Dimitrenko futilely tried to fight Chambers on the inside and it was a poor decision to make. Despite the loss, through, Dimitrenko remains ranked high in both the International boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization and should be able to get a title shot in a year or so if he continues to win. Don’t expect Dimitrenko to be put in with another good fighter like Chambers. Dimitrenko will likely get matched softly until he gets a shot against Wladimir Klitschko.