Amir Khan will fight former world champion Gary St Clair on February 2 at the Excel Arena, London.
St Clair has been brought in after Khan's original opponent Martin Kristjansen withdrew from the scheduled WBO Intercontinental lightweight contest due to 'flu.
Instead, Khan - whose last outing was a 72-second demolition of Graham Earl - will make the third defence of his Commonwealth lightweight title against Australian St Clair.
St Clair is a former IBF super-featherweight champion who has never been stopped during a 46-fight career.
"Despite Kristjansen pulling out, I feel in fantastic shape at this point of my training," said Khan.
"I'm punching really hard and just looking forward to getting in the ring to kick off my 2008 campaign towards the world title.
Tough
"It was pretty tough with the change of opponent, but at the end of the day I have a job to do and I've got to get on with it and focus on St Clair now.
"As soon as the videos of him come in, I will sit down with my trainer Oliver Harrison and draw up the battle plans to beat him.
"His record looks very impressive, and he has been in with some great names like Vivian Harris and Diego Corrales. If he has made these two go the distance then I know I've got a hard fight on my hands.
"Obviously, the motivation is to be the first to stop him - which would look fantastic on my record - but I've also got great boxing skills to back it up with.
"There is no way I'm going to let him ruin my year and my world title ambitions."
