Amir Khan is relishing the prospect of taking on a fighter “as skilful as me” when he defends his WBA light-welterweight title against Dmitriy Salita on Saturday.

Khan will put his world title on the line in Newcastle for the first time since dethroning Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik in the summer.

The 22-year-old from Bolton, an Olympic silver medalist in Athens in 2004, produced a punch-perfect performance to beat technically-sound Kotelnik but expects a tougher time of it against unbeaten New Yorker Salita.

“He’ll bring out the best in me,” said Khan. “I don’t get many fighters who are as skilful as me but I think Salita is, he’s very skilful.

“He’s got a style which is probably going to make me look good. He’s tough and doesn’t give up, he’s got a big heart in the ring.”

Khan has spoken regularly of the need to step up in performance when making the first defence of the WBA title and believes his time spent in Los Angeles with trainer Freddie Roach since the Kotelnik fight will bear fruit at the Metro Radio Arena tomorrow.

“We’re improving with every fight and getting better and better,” he said. “We learned a lot from the Kotelnik fight about the weaknesses. We’ve worked on it, improved on it and we’re going into this fight not making the mistakes we made against Kotelnik.

“Freddie is a great trainer and he’s always working on what I should do and shouldn’t do. Everything we do in the gym is done for a reason.

“I see myself as being a better fighter now than I was when I fought Kotelnik.”

On Saturday’s undercard Kevin Mitchell meets Breidis Prescott — the Colombian who defeated Khan in September last year — in a WBO lightweight title eliminator.

Meanwhile, former amateur stars James DeGale, Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders look to close out 2009 by protecting their unbeaten professional records.