Boxing: Khan on First Rung

After months of talk and speculation about his future, Amir Khan finally tests the professional waters for the first time tonight when he makes his paid debut at the Bolton Arena against a little-known Fulham car mechanic named David Bailey.

Khan's promoters are hoping it will be a first confident step on his way to a world title. The 18-year-old Olympic lightweight silver medallist is not topping the bill - that honour is given to the British and Commonwealth heavyweight title fight between Matt Skelton and Danny Williams - but the bulk of an anticipated 7,000 capacity crowd, and the millions watching as ITV makes its return to coverage of professional boxing, will have their eyes on Khan.

Of course, it would be a huge upset if Bailey were to win the contest, staged over four three-minute rounds at 9st 12lb (3lb over the lightweight limit and 2lb below light-welterweight, where Khan might ultimately prosper), and Khan should prove too fast and too strong.

The crowd will, in all likelihood, acclaim Khan's win like that of a world champion, but the eyes of the men schooling the Bolton teenager for a glittering future will maintain a clearer perspective.

"There is no way that Amir will be rushed," the promoter Frank Warren has said. And Warren, who plotted the route of Naseem Hamed to the world featherweight title 10 years ago, knows more than most about the painstaking route that has to be taken by any young prospect hoping to reach the top of the sport.

"There will be some fights that are easier than others, but it is about Amir learning the professional sport. If anybody has any criticism about who he will be fighting, that is my responsibility. He is a young, 18, but we all can see how much talent he has. But that cannot be wasted by over-matching him before he is ready. What I would like, and only time will tell, is for him to have fought for and won a world title by the time he is 21."

Khan has been training with Oliver Harrison in an old Salford factory now converted into a recreation centre, where Harrison was initially employed by the local council to use his training skills to give a sense of purpose to young people in a deprived area that has one of the highest crime rates in the north-west of England.

The 44-year-old learned to box with the late Phil Martin, a revered trainer who produced a string of champions from his gym on the edge of Manchester's notorious Moss Side. Harrison was not one of Martin's best fighters, but he learned the sport well and a bond has quickly grown between the quietly spoken teacher and the young Khan.

A visit to Harrison's office, a dark inner sanctum behind the brightly lit main gym, reveals the motivational forces behind the trainer's work. From all four walls, the instantly recognisable face of Muhammad Ali smiles down on Harrison's desk. "He is my hero," says Harrison. "What a man. I just hope, one day, that I am able to meet him."

Khan's fleet-footed style and blurring hand speed has, inevitably, drawn comparisons with the young Ali, but Harrison is not getting carried away with the idea. He is well aware that he now has to find a way to hone the flashy amateur into the complete professional. The dancing footwork must be allied to greater power and a tighter defence if Khan is to progress, and it seems he is proving to be a quick learner.

"Oliver and Amir knit together well," the fighter's father Shah Khan explains. "You can see when they are working together on the pads in the ring how well it is going. There are some good fighters down here, Steven Foster and Michael Jennings, and Amir has been accepted."

Harrison fashioned a remarkable improvement in Khan from the youth who appeared in the Olympics to the man who was able to defeat his nemesis Mario Kindelán in the much hyped rematch in Bolton in May. In Athens, Khan had leapt in exposing his jaw to damaging counter punches, but in the second Kindelán contest a more patient strategy helped him box his way to the most impressive of victories.

While Khan punches a heavy bag for the TV cameras, Asif Vali's mobile phone rings repeatedly. Khan's diminutive personal manager fields literally dozens of requests every day for the fighter's time, and expertly and politely declines anything that is likely to interfere with Amir's preparations for his debut appearance.

"It's difficult," says Vali. "Amir is a young lad and does n't like to say no to anybody. But I have to make sure his priorities are right. I have had one woman who went to the local press saying Amir had refused to make a charity appearance and how terrible it was. But that was out of order, because Amir has raised half a million for charity since Athens, and people have to realise he has a career to think about. If he is making public appearances and gets beaten, how much sense is there in that?"

At a press conference to publicise the contest, Vali made a point of shaking the hands of Khan's opponent, as well as his mother and father, reassuring them that there would be no pre-fight unpleasantness, adding, "If there is anything I can do to help you or anything you need while you are in Bolton, don't hesitate to ask."

In the boxing world, it is not difficult to find examples of once likeable young men, whose heads were turned and personalities hardened by fame and money. But Khan has a good team around him. The sternest tests of his ability and character might still lie in the years ahead, but nobody can deny that good foundations have been laid for an impressive beginning.