Boxing: Careless Khan rushes headlong to defeat at hands of Prescott

Amir Khan's world crashed around him last night when boxing's fastest rising young superstar was knocked out in just 54 seconds by big-hitting Colombian Breidis Prescott in Manchester. It was his first defeat, and it stunned the Khan entourage as much as the South American's flashing fists did the boy from Bolton.

Khan was counted out on his back by referee Tony O'Connor after being floored for the second time in a blistering opening spell – an ending no one could have foreseen, least of all the bookmakers who had made him 33-1 favourite.

Khan said: "These things happen. I got caught cold and I shouldn't have done. I was in too much of a rush, trying to please the crowd as usual, I suppose. But it's not the end of the world. I'll come back stronger. I'll be back in the gym after a week and my next fight will be different. This will make me a better fighter."

It was always a high risk fight for Khan, the taller Colombian bringing an unbeaten record which included 17 wins inside the distance in 19 bouts. Khan had made his usual dazzling start but this lasted merely a few seconds before Prescott sent him reeling with a wildly flung right hand.

This was the punch that Khan's new Cuban trainer, Jorge Rubio, had supposedly been teaching him to resist following the last two knockdowns in Khan's blossoming professional career since winning the Olympic silver medal four years ago.

Although Khan rose from near his own corner at eight, he was clearly unsteady and unready for the ensuing assault. Two more rights and a left cross flattened the biggest prospect Britain has had in years. As he was counted out and helped to his feet there were ashen faces at ringside.

Not least that of promoter Frank Warren, who had made this fight the first of a new package deal on Sky Box Office. The outcome was not one anyone had thought possible but perhaps because of his disregard for defence this may have been an accident waiting to happen.

Khan's mother left the ringside in tears as Prescott celebrated wildly in the ring, one of his corner men already on his mobile phone to relay the shock result to the fighter's family in hometown Barranquila.

Despite his new tutor, Khan still had not learned that in fighting, only fools rush in and he went straight for Prescott from the bell instead of trying to work out his tactics.

We really had no time to see where Rubio had manage to teach a young pup new tricks, as he had promised. The 21-year-old was simply overpowered by a welter of punches and although boxing is littered with a history of fighters who have picked themselves up from the floor and gone on to win world titles, this is clearly going to be a long haul for a young man whose dreams lay in tatters.

Officially the bout was for Khan's little regarded World Boxing Organisation Intercontinental belt. But where he goes from here, apart from back to Bolton is anyone's guess.

Edinburgh's Alex Arthur who was awarded the WBO super-featherweight title by default when holder Joan Jusman relinquished the belt, lost it to domestic rival Nicky Cook in his first defence. Cook, a 29-year-old Londoner, won an intriguing tactical battle for a unanimous points verdict.

Cook fought a near perfect fight, often beating the Scot to the punch with some neat and nimble boxing. Arthur's renowned punching power seemed to have evaporated. He was the more rugged but also the more ragged, keeping a watchful eye on Cook's left when it was the right he should have worried about.

It was the right which caught Arthur in the sixth and seventh round and there could be no disputing the eventual verdict in Cook's favour after a fast and exacting battle, conducted in such spirit that at the end they literally kissed and made up with Arthur telling his conqueror: "You'll make a fine champion."

Returning to a British ring after 19 months, the 36-year-old former Olympic gold medallist Audley Harrison managed a 10-round points win over Brazilian champion George Arias but the crowd booed him throughout because of the tedious manner of his victory.

A fistful of Britain's Beijing boxing team were ringside last night with their coach Terry Edwards, who will now report to Derek Mapp after the former Sport England chief was appointed to head the newly constituted British Amateur Boxing Association. This is an umbrella body for the home country organisations including the ABA of England, and Mapp will control the elite boxing programme leading up to 2012.