AMIR Khan could have the chance of revenge over his Olympic conqueror sooner than expected.

The Bolton amateur boxer lost the lightweight Olympic final in Athens to Mario Kindelan, but when the Cuban retired the chance of the pair meeting in the ring again seemed to have disappeared.

Yet this week, Kindelan, winner of two Olympic titles and unbeaten in five years, announced he was ready to come out of retirement for a World Cup tournament in Moscow scheduled for June - but that may now happen before then.

Cuba bring their national squad to England to compete on Friday, April 8, and Kindelan could be included in that squad.

Outside of the Olympic Games, it will be the first time the Cuban boxers have appeared in Western Europe. That suggests they will want to mark the event with a successful performance and that could mean a call-up for Kindelan, and an almost certain re-match with Amir.

"Pound for pound, he's probably the best boxer in the world so to meet up with him again would be a great fight," said Amir. "Hopefully, next time the result will be different. I'm learning every day and, at the same time as I'm getting older and stronger, he's getting older."

Amir, whose achievements last year were honoured when he received the Sony Sports Personality of the Year for South Asia award in London, is training for next month's ABA Championships.

There has been speculation he will turn professional with Frank Warren in time to fight on the Ricky Hatton-Kostya Tszyu undercard in Manchester on June 5, though he insists nothing has been decided.

"I don't think there is any truth in that (fighting on the Hatton undercard), but we'll just have to wait and see what happens," he said. "I'm just letting my family take care of that stuff. At the moment, I'm looking forward to the ABAs, the World Cup and the World Championships."

The World Championships are in Mianyang, China, in November, by which time Kindelan, who scored a 30-22 points victory over Khan in the Olympic final, will be 34, the mandatory retirement age for amateur boxers. Kindelan had been due to compete in the Cuban Championships, but postponed that due to a lack of fitness.

"Kindelan will be too old to fight in China, but it sounds like he's going to come back to compete before that," said Amir. "It would be good if he does. It would just give me the hunger to train harder and go out there and box him again."

Such a match would be a fascinating test of Amir's progress since his Athens defeat, when Kindelan's class and experience brought the teenager's brilliant Olympic campaign to a halt.

"It wasn't my hardest fight physically, but mentally it was very tough because of the skill he showed in that fight," said Amir. "I've had tougher physical fights before against stronger fighters but, against Kindelan, it was mostly tactical. That's what won it for him."

Khan's immediate target is the ABAs. He is due to fight Salford's Liam Dorrian at the Preston Guild Hall on February 7. The 19-year-old, who trains at Arrow Boxing Club, reached the national semi-finals last year.

"The ABAs are very important to me, Khan said. I've not got an ABA title at a senior level. I won it at junior and schoolboy level, but it would be good to go to the seniors and prove myself."

Plans for Khan to appear on the undercard of Frank Warrens first-ever pro-am event at the MEN Arena on February 11 appear to have fallen through and it looks like the first pro-am show will now take place in March.