It's No Más for Napa in Peterlee as Hall raises the roof

Ian Napa’s career took another setback on a hot, sticky night at Peterlee Leisure Centre in County Durham as he failed to regain the vacant British bantamweight title in a clash with Darlington’s fairly novice Stuart Hall having only his ninth professional fight 7(3)-0-(1). The former champion quit on his stool before the start of the ninth round in what was turning into an intriguing match up.

Roofer Hall (8st 5lbs 8oz) entered the ring to a saxophonist and boisterous home support. Napa (8st 6lbs) entered the ring in usual smiling confident manner, sunglasses et al. The first few seconds saw Hall land the only shot of note in the opening round, as Napa struggled to find his range against the significantly taller (5’8” – 5’1”) Hall, and most of his attacks where confined to lunges towards the body. Hall more than matched these attacks him with clever counter punching.

Napa was up early for the second and landed a good left, but Hall continued to box his way out of trouble and was showing no signs of the occasion getting to him. He landed some good jabs towards the end although Napa’s experience helped him roll with these and their impact was minimal. The third saw the Dappa one change tactics as he started to stalk Hall and stop letting him control the range. Hall resisted this and kept the increasingly tenacious looking Napa at distance. This was probably the first round that was clearly Napa’s as he avoided a four punch flurry to the end.

Hall landed the first meaningful combos of the fourth round, but failed to follow up with any sustained pressure. His patience could see him well through more fights, but with his greater size, and Napa not known for his heavy fist he should have thrown a bit more caution to the wind, and with it a bit more leather. That said Hall stilled looked comfortable when boxing at distance, but Napa stalking lateral movement looked to be causing him a few problems.

Some good early exchanges in the fifth soon fizzled out, as the round took on a similar style to the previous with Napa in the role of the hunter. Towards the end Napa’s lunges looked more desperate, as Hall maintained his composure and range, whilst landing good counters. At the start of the sixth Napa tried a new shot as he landed a big right over the top, as Hall left his left low. This was the first breach in what was looking a staunch head defence from Hall. He maintained his counter punching style catching Napa on the break following a raid downstairs. Late in the round Napa repaid this, landing a sweet uppercut on the break. The rounds where increasingly difficult to score with Napa increasing his work rate and growing in confidence, but Hall more than holding his own behind his jab.

The seventh saw Hall throw more punches, but the cleaner shots came from Napa. Hall did land a four shot combo but failed to follow it up. He went back to his corner looking the more tired as he headed into unchartered territory of completing his first seventh round.

In what was to be the last round Napa continued to throw big rights over the top and followed these up with left and right hooks downstairs. His work rate continued throughout the round as he took the fight to a cautious looking Hall, who maintained his range and counter punching to good effect.

The fight was becoming livelier as it progressed and was difficult to score throughout, for this reason the ending was an unexpected anti climax. Just before the ninth a roar went up from Hall’s fans as the fighter celebrated. Napa continued to shake his head on his stool, as he cited to referee Howard Foster injury was stopping him from continuing. In a barely audible (Hall has a seriously vocal following) from ringside interview, Napa claimed the venue was to hot and he had struggled to make weight. At the time the judges had Napa ahead by 2, 3 and 4. This I felt was unfair and failed to reflect the intelligent patient fight in which Hall boxed. For what it’s worth I had Napa ahead by one at the most.

All the questions will be what now for Napa as the losses become more frequent (19-9-0). Following losing his European title to Malik Bouziane, and this British and commonwealth title bout to Jamie McDonnell in the space of fifteen months, many saw this as last chance saloon. Only Napa himself will know. I saw enough to suggest their is life in the old dog yet.

Again, this detracts from Stuart Hall's achievement. He is more than a worthy champion, and shows what can be achieved in the sport despite a late start in the pro ranks. I hope this sets him on to some good challenges and pay cheques.

It is a welcome relief to have someone from Darlington who actually knows something about boxing. (BoxRec News' Editor is from Darlington, hence this outrageous dig.  It's fantastic to finally have a Lonsdale belt winner from the town - Hall is our first.  Both Isaac Ward and Francis Jones came up short of the best prize in boxing in recent years.)