Hall vs. Malinga For Vacant IBF Title In Leeds Tonight
Big time boxing makes a rare appearance in Leeds tonight as Darlington hero Stuart Hall gets a surprise IBF title shot against experienced South African campaigner Vusi Malinga at the First Direct Arena.
Hall, 15-2-1 (7), is getting this opportunity on the strength of his recent win against America’s Sergio Perales in Doncaster this past May, in which he won the vacant IBF Intercontinental strap.
Southpaw Malinga, 21-4-1 (12), a former WBC International and South African bantam champ, has two world title shots to his credit, a one round loss to Hozumi Hasegawa for the WBC belt in 2009 and a comprehensive 12 round points loss against IBF champ Leo Santa Cruz last year.
Malinga is obviously the more experienced man as Hall, a former British and Commonwealth king who also contended for the European title, has never traded at world level.
Nonetheless, this should be a good competitive scrap as both men are compact punchers who don’t waste much energy and get right down to it, each having been twelve rounds several times recently.
Expect a close quarters bout in which the fighters stand shoulder to shoulder and look to wear down the opponent through accumulated punishment.
Hall is the more committed body puncher while Malinga is the busier fighter, but the real key to this bout is whether or not the Englishman can deal with the southpaw stance of the visitor.
This is a genuine 50-50 bout in which the winner will probably be the man that can take the most punishment and keep going in what will be a grueling clash.
The undercard sees promising British welter champ Frankie Gavin, 17-0 (12), defending against veteran former Commonwealth light middle titlist Bradley Pryce, 34-15 (18), who is coming off a rematch loss against European light middle titlist Sergey Rabchenko a month ago.
Gavin is being groomed for the world stage and the bigger Pryce, who hasn’t made the welter weight limit in eight years, should be a good test for “Funtime”, who should win this on points.