By Steve Davis: Stuart Hall retained his IBF bantamweight world championship by technical draw against challenger Martin Ward last night at the Metro arena, Newcastle. The fight was stopped in the second round due to a nasty cut over Ward’s right eye. The cut itself occurred in the first round by an accidental clash of heads.
Ward’s corner frantically worked on the cut in between rounds but you could tell he wasn’t going to be allowed to continue for long. The cut was located above the right eye and you could see the blood flowing into the eye.During the second round, Ward constantly pawed at the eye as the blood flowed into it. If the blood hadn’t been flowing into the eye and it wasn’t visually bothering Ward, maybe the fight could have gone on, but you could tell that the cut was bothering Ward and effecting how he was boxing.
For me this fight was shaping up nicely. They say styles make fights and this seemed to be the case. Hall came forward from the off, working off the jab and then unloading. Ward who was the smaller of the two, but who had nice boxing skills, moved round the ring, counting off Hall’s attacks. The cut happened towards the end of the first round as the two fighter’s heads came together.
The first round was close, I gave it to Hall, but you could have scored it even. During the second round, with blood pouring down into Ward’s eye, the referee asked the doctors at ringside to inspect the cut, they informed the referee that Ward could not continue and the fight was stopped, much to the disappointment of the crowd. In this case the ref and doctors got it right, Ward could not see properly, therefore could not see Hall’s shots coming.
With the premature finish to the fight, I think the IBF should call for an immediate rematch. It was no fault of Ward that the cut occurred and he should be given another chance. Hall with his size and strength, as he looked the stronger of the two, maybe would have won in the end forcing a stoppage but I liked what I saw from Ward and it would have been an entertaining fight. The problem now is that Wards cut will need time to heal and by then Hall may have moved onto other things. I personally would love to see Hall have a rematch with Jamie McDonnell. McDonnell won the first fight and later became world champ only to be harshly stripped of the IBF title for not facing his mandatory challenger. This would be a great fight and McDonnell deserves it after how he was treated.
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