By Dean Bain: Some great fighters never become world champions; normally because they are just fighting in an era where their opponents are just too good. On the other hand you get a fighter who is not great at any aspect of boxing but just a solid fighter with a lot of heart being in the right place at the right time.
On Saturday 21st December at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, Stuart Hall certainly can be classed as the latter but without taken anything away from Hall he fought a hard 12 rounds and deservedly came away with a points win against South African Vusi Malinga.
Hall knocked down Malinga at the start of the 3rd round and dominated much of the earlier rounds, as the fight went into the 2nd half of the fight Malinga started to put the pressure on and marked Hall’s left eye. Hall’s eye worsened as the fight went into the later rounds and for the last 3 rounds Hall could see very little from his left eye. The fight was very entertaining and just as you thought Malinga was starting to wear down Hall he would then come back with combinations that would halt Malinga and catch the eyes of the judges.
Hall got an unanimous decision 116-111 117-110 117-110 in an action packed fight. It was a real rocky story for Hall who now moves on to 16-2-1. Nobody would have every mentioned Halls name if you had asked them potential British World Champions.
Where does Hall now go? Well, the obvious route would be to give Jamie McDonnell the opportunity to win the belt back that he never lost. McDonnell is the mandatory challenger and WBC Yamanka, WBA Moreno and WBO Kameda would all be too good for Hall plus likely uninterested in a contest with Hall.
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