BURY Amateur Boxing Club's Amir Khan made no mistake when he eased through to the last eight of the national ABA championships at Liverpool's Olympia on Friday evening writes PHIL THORP

The 18-year-old Olympic silver medallist defeated Wirral-based Steve Williams convincingly to qualify for the quarter-finals of the light-welterweight division at Yarmouth next weekend.

He stopped his opponent in the third round after running up a huge 23-3 lead but his victory was the only one for the East Lancashire squad who went down 7-1 to their Merseyside counterparts.

Meanwhile, Craig Watson, the Northside boxer who put the Bury fighter down in his first round ABA clash two weeks ago is set to go professional.

Although the 22-year-old Mancunian lost on points to Khan, pro manager Frank Maloney invited Watson to be his guest at last week's Michael Gomez world title bill at the MEN Arena and he is believed to be ready to move into the paid ranks at the end of the season.