Two days after he and his little brother were forced to deploy their pugilistic skills in order to make a gang of thieves rue the evening they attempted to steal a deposed world champion boxer's Range Rover, Amir Khan convened a press conference in London to announce the details of his next, considerably less impromptu fight.

Fresh and unmarked after decking several unknown opponents on a Birmingham street, the Bolton fighter confirmed that his next bout will take place in the more familiar environs of the boxing ring, on 15 December, when he will take on the undefeated Californian Carlos Molina at the LA Sports Arena in a contest to be broadcast live on Showtime in the USA and Sky Sports closer to home.

Despite suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, Khan remains box office in the USA, but his career is at a crossroads. With this in mind, he has dispensed with the services of Freddie Roach and taken up with Virgil Hunter, the highly regarded American trainer who steered Andre Ward to his Super Six final victory over Carl Froch.

In a recent interview with World Boxing News, Hunter said that he had concluded from watching his new charge's fights that, while Khan is a good boxer, "he doesn't have an understanding of boxing". As withering an assessment as it sounds, it is not one with which Khan disagreed. "My main style was that of a good boxer, using my brains," he said. "But when you start winning fights comfortably you sometimes forget the meaning of being a boxer. I think what Virgil wants me to do is go back to boxing again, but be a smart boxer and understand what I'm doing.

"I think that's going to be a big part of our relationship – he has to teach me what he wants me to do. He needs to teach me to stick to a game plan because at times when I see red, I forget the gameplan and start firing shots from all angles. Being a young fighter and a hungry and aggressive fighter, we do make a lot of mistakes. I put my hand up – in my last two fights I did make mistakes."

Explaining his decision to part from Roach, the 25-year-old said he was frustrated at featuring behind Manny Pacquiao on the trainer's list of priorities and cited a lack of training time with the American as the main reason for a split he stressed was amicable.

"Freddie's a great trainer, but I just wasn't getting everything I wanted from him," Khan said. "I was personally the one who called Freddie on the phone and I said: 'Look, I'm no longer going to be training with you. I'm going to move trainers and train with Virgil Hunter.' He wished me all the very best and we just moved on from there."

Undefeated in 17 fights, Molina is fast and skilful but not renowned as a big puncher. Going toe to toe with Khan will represent a big step up for the Californian but, with his career on the line, the Englishman is humble enough to recognise that he too has much to fear. "I've never taken any fight lightly and after two defeats it's important I come back stronger," he said. "Mentally I'm prepared and I know I've made mistakes, so I'm going to be training a hundred times harder than I've ever trained before."

Improving his defence while maintaining his trademark aggression will be Khan's new modus operandi and he is confident his new trainer can help him do just that. "That is what we are going to be working on and we know exactly what we have to do," he said. "We have never really had a defence if you think about it." A frank admission from a fighter with much to prove, even if certain luckless car-jackers may not concur.