By Mark Vester

A few weeks ago, UK star Amir Khan was completely against the proposed idea of fighting his close friend and hero, Ricky Hatton. Now that he's had some time to think it over, Khan has gone on the record for the very first time and revealed that he was willing to make the fight happen. Khan makes the jump to junior welterweight on June 27 against WBA champion Andreas Kotelnik.

"It'd be a brilliant fight for the British fans to see," said Khan to The Telegraph. "Our styles would make a brilliant fight – I'm a mover, I'm a boxer whereas he [Hatton] is a pressure fighter. No matter what, if we do the fight it's going to be a tear-up, it's going to be brilliant.

"But we leave picking the fights and everything to the promoters. If the fight does come up one day then it comes. But if not, it doesn't really bother me 'cos there will be huge fights in the future."

Khan hopes that a big win over Kotelnik will one day put him in the mix for big fights against the best in the world like Juan Manuel Marquez and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"If you think of it I'm going to get on to the world stage, find a way of ­hopefully beating Kotelnik, becoming world champion and then winning my debut in America this year sometime," Khan said. "So two or three fights down the line [I'd] be up against the likes of Márquez and Mayweather."

"These guys already know who I am. I haven't hit my peak yet but in a couple more fights I think I'll be at my peak and I'll be getting experience. I'm in the right camp, the right gym where I can pick that up from. So it'd be great to fight these legends in the sport."

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