British Scene: Stuart Hall vs Martin Power Preview

Dave Oakes previews Friday's British bantamweight title clash between champion Stuart Hall and challenger Martin Power.

The final televised show of the season takes place at the Rainton Meadows Arena in Houghton-le-Spring this Friday night. Stuart Hall defends his British title for the first time; he takes on former foe, and former champion, Martin Power.

The first meeting between the pair, in September last year, was a thoroughly entertaining bout in which Hall ground down and overwhelmed Power in the eighth and final round. Power fancies his chances of revenge here but needs to improve from their first meeting if he’s to stand a chance of reclaiming the title.

Power has been on a bad run of form recently, he’s lost five of his last seven and looks to be a shadow of the fighter that won the British title five years ago against Dale Robinson. He made a couple of successful defences before being taken apart by Tshifhiwa Munyai in a challenge for the Commonwealth title and has never really recovered since, although his victory over Matthew Edmonds last time out was a decent result for him.

Hall won the title against Ian Napa and is making a quick fire defence only seven weeks later. Napa overcame a slow start and was winning the fight until he retired on his stool after the eighth round citing exhaustion as the reason. The way Hall won the title probably wasn’t the way he’d hoped to, but he boxed with a dogged determination and impressed a lot of people in the process.

This should be an another entertaining meeting, Power is rarely in a bad fight whilst Hall will be full of confidence and will no doubt believe he can stop Power again. Hall doesn’t do anything exceptionally well; he’s more of a solid all-round fighter that works hard to achieve the victory.

Power has taken himself off to a quiet part of Finland in preparation for the fight and is said to be in great shape both mentally and physically. My main concern about Power is his lack of punch resistance, he’s never had a rock solid chin but has been getting shaken, dropped or stopped much more easily lately than he did in his prime.

I can see this fight being similar to their first meeting and can see a similar outcome with Hall stopping a game but outgunned Power sometime after the midway point.

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