World champs on secret to success
Wolverhampton made history by crowning two female world champions this year - now they reveal a key ingredient of their success.
Close friends Lyndsey Scragg and Michelle Newell both tasted glory on the biggest stage, after meeting as young women looking to break into combat sports.
Today, Thai boxer Newell is the reigning ISKA World super-atomweight champion, after upsetting two-time World amateur champion Lucy Poirot at age 37 in March.
Scragg - as the city's first female professional boxer - then followed that feat with the Global Boxing Council super-featherweight title in June, after beating Kristine Shergold to the vacant crown.
Both went down on home soil, Newell at Dunstall Racecourse, while Scragg came out on top at the Civic.
And both could call upon super fitness when it mattered, which they put down to their long association and training at the city's 'Firewalker' gym.
Scragg said: "If it hadn't have been for Firewalker, I would never have taken up boxing to begin with. They put me on the path to what I have achieved today.
"They still have a big input in my development, a lot of the fitness work we do together is what makes me such a force in the ring.
"I have a lot to thank them for."
Newell - given her chosen sport - has even closer links, with her trainer and partner Joby Clayton an employee at 'Firewalker.'
It's a far cry when she used to accompany her then five-year-old son Tyrone to the old 'Trojan' gym in Heath Town.
The bug bit, and 16 years later she is a World champion.
She said: "Obviously my partner and trainer Joby has been a massive factor in the success I have had. Myself and Lyndsey have come a long way and they have been a big part of that."
The two now find themselves as role models for other females at the gym and further afield, a mantle both champions are happy to take up.
Scragg said: "This country has got to catch up with women involved in combat sports. There are young girls out there who want to take it up, my advice to them is don't let anybody stop you.
"They could do a lot worse than to come to 'Firewalker,' a place with a proven track record of bringing such fighters through."
Newell added: "You would see young kids on the street with nowhere to channel their energies, I wasn't going to let my son go that way.
"Combat sports has taught him so much, and it could for many others."
Firewalker Health Club, on Salisbury Street, Wolverhampton can be contacted on 01902 311 800.
