AMIR Khan's next fight will be in Bolton after plans failed to take him to Las Vegas.

The 21-year-old will fight for the European lightweight crown in front of his home fans on Saturday, April 5, against Yuri Romanov of Belarus.

Promoter Frank Warren flew to the States in the hope of landing Khan a bout on the same weekend as Joe Calzaghe's light-heavyweight showdown with Bernard Hopkins.

Talks failed when ITV, who still have two fights left on their contract with Khan, refused to put up the money.

Instead, Khan will take on the 25-year-old who won the title two years ago and defended it twice at Bolton Arena.

It appears that Warren's relationship with ITV has broken down and that the rights to Khan's future fights will be changing channels after he took a swipe at the television company.

Writing in his weekly column in The Sun, Warren pulled no punches of his own, when he criticised ITV for showing the Bolton boxer's last fight against Gairy St Clair at 11pm.

"TV companies measure success in boxing in different ways - pay-per-view numbers, subscriptions or advertising revenue," said Warren.

"Yet in the end it comes down to one thing - delivering viewers.

"That's why I'm delighted that Amir Khan's fight pulled in an audience of five million.

"It would have been even more if ITV hadn't made the amazing decision to screen it around 11pm, and I'm seriously concerned about their ever-changing attitude to the sport. Khan's previous fight got seven million viewers, while this latest one beat Match of the Day and was at the serious disadvantage of coming off the back of a show with a rating of just 2.3million.

"Amir has given ITV big viewing figures but where was the commitment to him last week? Had the St Clair fight been at 10pm, I'm confident we'd have got eight million. To say I'm disappointed and frustrated is an understatement."

The country's top promoter has two fights left of his three-year deal with Khan.

But if the Commonwealth champion re-signs with Warren it would appear it will signal the end of his exposure on terrestrial television, unless the BBC step in for the first time since they had their fingers burned by the ill-fated Audley Harrison deal.