Matthew Hall (boxer)

Matthew Hall
Born	(1984-07-05) 5 July 1984 Manchester, England
Nationality	British
Other names	El Torito ("The Little Bull")
Statistics
Weight(s)	Light middleweight Middleweight
Height	5 ft 7+1⁄2 in (171 cm)
Reach	65 in (165 cm)
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	33
Wins	26
Wins by KO	16
Losses	7

Matthew Hall (born 5 July 1984) is a British professional boxer. He is a former Commonwealth light middleweight champion, having also challenged for the British and European light middleweight titles as well as the British and Commonwealth middleweight titles.

Early professional career

Hall's professional debut came in September 2002 with a win over boxing journeyman Pedro Thompson, stopping him in the first round at the MEN Arena in Manchester. His very next fight against the same opponent saw Hall travel to Newcastle in order to beat Thompson again but this time on points over 4 rounds meaning that at the end of his debut year Hall has compiled an unbeaten record of 2-0. Over the course of the next four years, Hall fought fourteen more times against a host of other journeymen winning every fight meaning that his record at the end of 2006 stood at sixteen wins with no defeats. Hall's progress at this time was all the more impressive as in 2003 he had been the victim of a stabbing incident which nearly cost him his life. Speaking to the Daily Mirror about the incident Hall said "I had my bowel perforated six times and lost five or six litres of blood...I was in a bad way and it took me about a year to recover. It's not good getting stabbed." Speaking in 2009 Hall preferred to seek positives from the incident saying "It did my career a favour because it held me back a year or two. I could have had meaningful fights when I was younger and not been ready. I could have been and gone."

Defeat and fightback

Hall's perfect record however was about to be shattered in his first fight of 2007. The fight in July was to come a full year after the last time Hall had stepped into the ring when he had beaten Kevin Phelan with a 1st round stoppage. A year later the boot was to be on the other foot when, at the O2 Arena in London, Martin Concepcion stopped Hall in the first round handing him his first defeat in 5 years as a professional boxer. Hall responded to the defeat with a number of wins over worthy opponents. On 3 December 2007 he defeated Tyan Booth at the Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester and on 22 March 2008 in his first fight of the new year beat the unbeaten Kerry Hope at the International Arena in Cardiff. On 6 September 2008 he beat the former Celtic title challenger Taz Jones and on 10 October 2008 returned to Manchester to beat former Irish champion Ciaran Healy at the MEN Arena. On 12 December 2008 in his last fight of the year, Hall capped off a series of four wins in a row following the Concepcion defeat to stop former Central Area champion Jason Rushton in Widnes.

Commonwealth Champion

Hall's winning run was to pay dividends as on 14 March 2009 Hall defeated defending champion Bradley Pryce to lift the Commonwealth championship knocking Pryce out in the 2nd round. Disappointment following however when on 18 July 2009 Hall lost his title in his first defence at the MEN Arena in Manchester. He was defeated by Anthony Small in a fight which also saw the vacant British title on the line, the referee stopping the fight in the 8th round handing both belts to Small. Following the contest Hall split from his longtime trainer Brian Hughes and moved to try and rebuild with Bolton-based trainer Karl Ince. Speaking of the change in direction Hall said that he had been "embarrassed" by his performance and added that "sometimes you need a change". In his first contest following the defeat on 15 May 2010, Hall scored a 5th round stoppage win over Tony Randell the British Masters champion in a non-title bout.

European title attempt

On 18 September 2010 as part of Frank Warrens 'Magnificent Seven' card, Hall lost for the third time in his career. The fight, for the vacant European title, had come at short notice for Hall following an injury to Ryan Rhodes who had been due to defend the belt on the card. The injury had meant that the belt became vacant and Hall stepped in to fight the Czech Republics Lucas Konecny. In the end Konecny proved too much of a step up for Hall and following two knockdowns in the 6th round the referee stopped the fight. A disappointed Hall announced after the fight that it would be his last that he would retire.

Return from retirement and British title elimination fight

In October 2011, Hall returned to the professional fight game. He suffered a shock defeat to Bulgarian Alex Ribchev on points shown live on new boxing channel BoxNation. Hall then fought and defeated Kris Carslaw in a British light middleweight title elimination fight.

Hall suffered another defeat at the hands of Irish fighter Gary O'Sullivan, at Upton Park, London, on 14 July.

Professional boxing record

33 fights	26 wins	7 losses
By knockout	16	3
By decision	10	4
Draws	0
No contests	0

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
33	Win	26–7	Dan Blackwell	PTS	6	2015-04-18	Sports Centre, Oldham, England
32	Loss	25–7	Billy Joe Saunders	UD	12	2013-03-21	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, England	For Commonwealth (British Empire) Middleweight title. For BBBofC British Middleweight title.
31	Win	25–6	Lee Noble	PTS	6	2012-11-30	Manchester Arena, Manchester, England
30	Loss	24–6	Gary O'Sullivan	UD	12	2012-07-14	Upton Park, West Ham, London, England	For vacant WBO International Middleweight title.
29	Loss	24–5	Sam Webb	SD	12	2012-04-28	Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London, England
28	Win	24–4	Kris Carslaw	UD	10	2011-11-25	Ravenscraig Sports Centre, Motherwell, Scotland
27	Loss	23–4	Alexey Ribchev	PTS	6	2011-10-28	Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, England
26	Loss	23–3	Lukas Konecny	TKO	6 (12), 1:53	2010-09-18	LG Arena, Birmingham, England	For vacant EBU European Super welterweight title.
25	Win	23–2	Tony Randell	TKO	3 (6), 1:58	2010-05-15	Upton Park, West Ham, London, England
24	Loss	22–2	Anthony Small	TKO	8 (12), 2:21	2009-07-18	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England	Lost Commonwealth (British Empire) Super welterweight title. For vacant BBBofC British Super welterweight title.
23	Win	22–1	Bradley Pryce	TKO	2 (12), 2:59	2009-03-14	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England	Won Commonwealth (British Empire) Super welterweight title.
22	Win	21–1	Jason Rushton	TKO	6 (8), 1:19	2008-12-12	Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, England
21	Win	20–1	Ciaran Healy	TKO	3 (8), 1:56	2008-10-10	Everton Park Sports Centre, Liverpool, England
20	Win	19–1	Taz Jones	TKO	5 (8), 2:56	2008-09-06	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
19	Win	18–1	Kerry Hope	TKO	8 (8), 0:53	2008-03-22	International Arena, Cardiff, Wales
18	Win	17–1	Tyan Booth	PTS	8	2007-12-03	Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester, England
17	Loss	16–1	Martin Concepcion	TKO	1 (8), 2:00	2007-07-14	The O2 Arena, Greenwich, London, England
16	Win	16–0	Kevin Phelan	TKO	1 (6), 2:06	2006-07-08	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales
15	Win	15–0	Rob Burton	KO	3 (?), 1:25	2006-03-11	Newport Centre, Newport, Wales
14	Win	14–0	Jon Foster	TKO	3 (6), 1:29	2006-01-28	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, England
13	Win	13–0	Matt Scriven	TKO	2 (6), 2:26	2005-06-04	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
12	Win	12–0	Sylvestre Marianini	TKO	1 (6), 2:57	2005-02-11	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
11	Win	11–0	Leigh Wicks	PTS	4	2005-01-21	Bridgend Leisure Centre, Bridgend, Wales
10	Win	10–0	Jason Collins	PTS	6	2004-12-03	Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland
9	Win	9–0	Ojay Abrahams	KO	1 (6), 2:41	2004-11-12	North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
8	Win	8–0	Howard Clarke	TKO	5 (6), 1:58	2004-10-01	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
7	Win	7–0	Isidro Gonzalez	TKO	3 (4), 1:19	2004-06-12	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
6	Win	6–0	Craig Lynch	PTS	6	2004-05-06	Metrodome, Barnsley, England
5	Win	5–0	Patrick Cito	PTS	4	2003-05-08	Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, England
4	Win	4–0	Brian Coleman	TKO	1 (4), 1:55	2003-04-05	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
3	Win	3–0	Clive Johnson	PTS	4	2003-01-18	Guild Hall, Preston, Lancashire, England
2	Win	2–0	Pedro Thompson	PTS	4	2002-12-14	Telewest Arena, Newcastle, England
1	Win	1–0	Pedro Thompson	TKO	1 (4), 2:15	2002-09-28	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England	Professional debut