In a sight upset, undefeated #11 IBF Paul Butler (16-0, 8 KO’s) defeated IBF bantamweight champion Stuart Hall (16-3-2, 7 KO’s) by a 12 round split decision on Saturday night Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom. Many of the rounds were very difficult to score due to Hall landing the harder shots, but Butler connecting with more of his lighter punches.
The judges scored it 115-113, 117-111 for Butler, and 115-113 for Hall. Butler was very impressive with the beautiful combinations, the speed and the angles he was throwing his punches from. If had a little more power on his shots, it would have been a cut and dried case of him being the better fighter, but he didn’t have anywhere near the same kind of power that Hall did on his punches.
After the fight Butler said he would give Hall a rematch in order to clear up the controversy about the decision. Whether Hall gets a rematch or not remains to be seen.
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In a big mismatch, Bradley Saunders (10-0, 8 KO’s) defeated Ville Piispanen (18-5-3, 6 KO’s) by a quick 1st round knockout. Saunders dropped the overmatched Piispanen with a left to the body. The fight was then halted.
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Undefeated middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. (16-0, 11 KO’s) showed off his power in knocking down Stepan Horvath (12-4, 4 KO’s) 4 times en route to stopping him in the 6th round. Horvath was down twice in the 5th and 6th rounds. Oddly enough, Horvath won rounds 2 and 3 and looked to be in command of the fight going into the 4th round. But in the 4th, Eubank Jr. came alive and hurt Horvath with a devastating right uppercut that caused him to turn his back and walk to his corner. Why the fight wasn’t halted at that point is unclear.
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Commonwealth cruiserweight champion Ovill McKenzie (23-12, 12 KO’s) showed off his power in destroying Jon-Lewis Dickinson (15-3, 4 KO’s) by a 2nd round knockout to capture his British cruiserweight title.
