KELLY Morgan has been enlisting the help of two world champions in her bid to become the WBC Silver middleweight champion next month.

The adopted Swindonian headlines Neilson Boxing’s first professional show – 'New Beginning' – at Grange Leisure Centre on Friday, June 10 when she tackles Gifty Ankrah.

The 2002 Commonwealth Games javelin bronze-medallist began her camp by sparring 10 rounds with WBC super-welterweight Mikaela Lauren as the Swede prepared to defend her crown in April.

And with Ankrah a former foe of reigning WBC super-middleweight champion Nikki Adler, who forced the Ghanaian to retire on her stool at the end of the eighth round, the 35-year-old has been getting a few words of advice from the German after meeting in Mexico earlier this year for the WBC’s female boxing convention.

“She (Adler) literally told me she (Ankrah) has a hard head. Those were her words,” Morgan said.

“She is very durable, she will keep coming, so I’m expecting her, like (Szilvia) Szabados (Morgan’s last opponent), to have an iron chin – I want to test that out.

“I want to go out there and make a statement. I try and stop everybody but that hasn’t happened since my debut, so we will go out there and throw those shots.

“The power is there more than ever and as long as we can match that with timing, we should be good.”

Morgan, who is also a former England netball international, will be in only her fourth professional contest when she faces Ankrah and having only been in six-round contests before, she has no concerns about doing 10 two-minutes rounds.

“I’ve been sparring for 10 rounds from the start,” said Morgan, who trains alongside Swindon’s unbeaten welterweight Ryan Martin, under the guidance of trainer Richard Farnan.

“Plus, I do a lot of three-minute round work with the lads, so that is an endurance-tester.

“Before Mikaela Lauren’s world championship fight, we were sparring 10 rounds – and that was at the start of the camp.

“It is so different (sparring women instead of men), but it is good to have the variety.

“I do need the sparring with the girls because it is almost a different sport altogether.

“With two-minute rounds, the tempo is higher and the work-rate is higher because you don’t pace yourself as much.

“Every boxer is different but to receive a shot from a super-welterweight female, in comparison to a super-welter or middleweight man, is different.

“You are taking harder shots, the timing is slightly different, the variety of shots is different from boxer to boxer, male or female.

“You just try to learn and take as much as you can from every person.”