Bethnal Green's Ramla Ali takes the step up in her second pro outing this Saturday at SSE Arena, Wembley when she takes on experienced campaigner Bec Connolly.

The 31-year-old super-bantamweight prospect scored a comfortable six-round shut out over Germany's Eva Hubmayer in her opening paid bout last October at the same venue.

Watford-born Connolly, 36, who has the ring nickname 'Lady Luck' and has won three fights during her four-year 11-fight spell, has been calling out Ali's name on a couple of social media platforms for a good few months.

She has shared the ring with some of the top contenders from the domestic female featherweight division including Terri Harper, Natasha Jonas, Carly Skelly and Ellie Scotney who she lost to in her last bout back in October.

Somalia-born Ali, who fights under Eddie Hearn's star-studded Matchroom Boxing stable, accepted Connolly's challenge after her original opponent from Spain Venesa Caballero had to pull out after she received a positive Covid-19 test.

"She's (Bec) been saying that she wants to fight me for quite sometime online so I thought why not. I'm hoping it is a nice step up and no doubt I know I'll win on Saturday so I'm really looking forward to getting back in the ring again."

While the majority of the gyms around the country has been closed to the public since the year long coronavirus pandemic Ali has housed herself at BoxClever Gym in Ladbroke Grove, which is owned by her friend Peter Liggins, along with co-training team of husband Richard Moore and Jobi Clayton while preparing for Saturday's bout.

"During Covid all the gym were closed and a friend of mine who owns a gym in Ladbroke Grove kindly gave us the keys to his place," she continues.

"He said no one's going to be in it so you guys might as well use it whenever you want, so we sort of had to just stay at a mates house close to the gym and that's where we've been training."

Sadly Ali will return to Wembley performing behind closed doors again. However when that day happens when it's finally safe for promoters to allow fans back in arenas and stadiums all over the country Bethnal Green's latest sporting prodigy is intrigued to find out the response she will receive. But for now and which she has experienced for the majority of her boxing career Saturday will just be another normal outing.

"It's quite weird but to be honest I'm used to it," she added. "I was telling Jamie (Ward) from Matchroom a while back that I've been to some horrible places in the world and there's just no crowd.

"And I've done that from international boxing for the past four years and I'm used to no crowd, used to sort of cheering for myself and trying to uplift myself and be positive with myself.

"It's no really anything new to me. I think what would be new to me is the day it flips and the crowds are allowed to come back and I say wow what's going on here!"

Ali appears on the seven-fight Matchroom Boxing bill which is headlined by Hackney's Lawrence Okolie attempt to capture the vacant WBO world cruiserweight title against Poland's Krzysztof Glowaki. Coverage starts on Sky Sports Facebook page from 6pm before its moves to their main channel from 7pm.