Khan can deal with challenge of Evans

Amir Khan today admitted his Olympic success has made him a marked man.

The 17-year-old became one of British boxing's most high-profile fighters when he returned from Athens with a silver medal.

In three hectic months since the Games Khan has been paraded through the streets of London and his home town of Bolton, been featured in glossy magazine fashion spreads, given countless interviews and built up a bulging diary of public appearances.

The first boxer to inflict a bruise on that celebrity status will make quite a name for himself and Khan conceded: "I know every opponent will now have extra motivation to beat me.

"Every fight is going to be hard from now on, there will be no easy ones. I've got to treat every fight as though it was an Olympic final."

Khan tonight makes his first competitive appearance since Athens when he leads England in an amateur international against the United States in Liverpool.

And as if to prove Khan's point about his having become a moving target, his American opponent in the lightweight class warned that he was determined to exact "Olympic revenge".

Michael Evans, a 27-year-old student from Dayton in Ohio, claimed he missed out on a place in America's Olympic team only on a countback of missed punches after the scores were tied in the final of a qualifying competition.