Why wont Matthew Hall team up with Joe Gallagher?

I'm a big follower of the Manchester fight scene and mostly track Joe Gallagher's gym, which is now based in Bolton and has several of the best domestic fighters, such as John Murray, Anthony Crolla and new British champion Scott Quigg, as well as hot prospects Joe Murray and Callum Johnson.

One guy who I would like to see joining the Gallagher gym would be Middleton light middleweight Matthew Hall, who was a disappointing loser on his return from a short retirement against Bulgarian Alexey Ribchev at the Bowlers in Manchester on Friday night.

Hall's defence wasn't at all good, but credit has to go to the lad for an extremely honest post-fight interview, with Hall saying he's an "old fighter". However I do think he has got some miles left in the clock, he just needs a little bit of work.

The power is most definitely there, shown by his fantastic stoppage of Bradley Pryce to win the Commonwealth title at the M.E.N on a big bill a few years ago. I also think he's got a great work-rate and couple that with an improvement in his technical skills and his tactics, you could have a very good domestic fighter on your hands.

Hall does have a British title eliminator lined up and even though he lost on Friday, he could still fight. He has only just linked up with a good Manchester trainer in Pat Barrett, but in my opinion a move to Gallagher's gym could be worth a crack. Obviously I don't know how the two guys get along or if they've had contact before, but with both being Manchester based, the move makes plenty of sense in my opinion. I'm a real fan of Hall and despite the loss being a hard one to take, I would hope he has the desire to give it another crack, a shot at the British title against a fellow Manchester fighter, Prince Arron, could very well be in the offing.

Respect to Dean Byrne

Short little post to start my blog and it's about the action in Manchester on Friday night, which was screened by the excellent Box Nation, Sky channel 456.


Frankie Gavin, the former amateur star pulled out with just 24 hours notice and was supposed to fight the Frenchman Frank Haroche Horta in a WBO Inter-Continental title defence, for what is now unknown reasons, but it continued a worry recent bad turn of events for "Funtime". However I wouldnt like to comment on what's happening with Frankie and rather applaud Irishman Dean Byrne for stepping in.


Byrne had only fought a week ago at York Hall against Michael Frontin, taking an eight round decision win, and for him to put his unbeaten record on the line against a guy he would have known nothing about, just to save the Queensberry Promotions show was highly commendable.


The Irishman has had a very interesting pro career fighting in his homeland, Australia and America, where he trained at the famed Wildcard gym. In the fight with Horta he was pulled out by his corner in the 8th round, struggling with the more experienced fighter, although the corner cited a hand injury for his pull out.


Byrne falls to 15-1 (6 KO's) after that, but has plenty of miles left in him, he does need to get some confidence boosting victories (especially over 10 round distances), however if all goes well it would be great to see him and Gavin making statements in 12 months time.

Boxing Blog

Hello and welcome to my new Boxing blog here at Dragon Boxing.


First of all the name Dragon Boxing comes from me being Welsh, and a lot of my blog will be focused on a lot of Welsh pro fighters, as well as some amateur stuff.


This blog will cover pretty much everything about Boxing, predominantly the UK fight scene. I will have some nice features each week such as Prospect of the week, Fighter of the week, and previews for up coming fights. I will write a lot of stuff by the off chance to get it off my chest, but will be passionate, opinionated Boxing talk.


I'm hoping the blog will grow and that it will become a popular Boxing website.


Thank You for reading.