MORGAN Jones will enter the ring at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday night with a new face in his corner after deciding to leave Newport’s acclaimed St Joseph’s Boxing Club.

The 26-year-old has split from trainer Tony Borg and is now working with Ricky Hatton’s former coach Lee Beard, who he has known since his amateur days, in Manchester.

With six-month-old son Amari at home, making the move north came as a huge wrench, but it’s something that the unbeaten super-middleweight feels is going to be for the best in the long run.

Jones is away training from Monday to Friday before returning to Wales for the weekend.

“Leaving St Joseph’s and moving to Manchester was a massive decision to make,” he said.

“I had to think about it a lot because I’ve got a six-month-old and knew it was going to be hard away from home.

“But I knew the decision I made was with him in mind and would benefit him in the long run.

“It was also a pretty controversial decision with it being so close to a fight but it has proved to be the best decision I’ve made in a long time.

“I’ve got to get on with things regardless of how people feel about my decision.

“Boxing is a business and when you make decisions like this you’ve got to put yourself first.

“I’m only in my second week with Lee but really feel things are progressing at the right pace.”

Explaining why he decided to quit St Joes, he added: “I had a really good couple of years but found things weren’t progressing as I wanted.

“I would have preferred to progress at a faster pace than I was.

“If you feel that you are not developing the right way it really needs to be addressed.

“I definitely progressed at St Joseph’s and Tony is a great trainer, I consider him to be up there with the best in the UK, but as it’s such a massive set-up I wasn’t getting as much one-one-one work as I would have preferred.”

Jones rang Borg to inform him of his decision to switch gyms when the latter was over in Belfast for Craig Evans’ European title defence.

And Jones, who bids for a 12th straight victory against South African Jade Karam this weekend, admits the situation could have been handled better.

“When we spoke it was a three-minute conversation, which was the last thing I wanted,” said Jones.

“I really would have liked to speak to him face-to-face.

“I wanted it to come to a good finish and didn’t want to burn my bridges. I consider Tony a good friend of mine and always will.

“Starting off my pro career at St Joseph’s was the best decision I could have made at the time and the team there is just incredible.”

Meanwhile, after St Joes’ Dan Barton drew with Anthony Fox in Bristol last Friday, another Newport fighter has been pencilled in for his third outing in the paid ranks next month.

Sean McGoldrick is set to face an as yet unnamed opponent on a show in Solihull on July 29.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist has won his first two bouts as a professional, the most recent in Belfast on June 10.

The next of the Newport gym’s stable of boxers in action is Dale Evans at London’s Copper Box Arena on July 8.