By Terence Dooley
Eddie Hearn has confirmed that a third world title fight has been added to his September 10 O2 Arena bill, Lee Haskins (33-3, 14 KOs) will defend his IBF World bantamweight belt against domestic rival Stuart Hall (20-4-2, 7 early) on the Sky Sports Box Office televised show.
Gennady Golovkin’s middleweight IBF, WBC, IBO and WBA title defence against Kell Brook tops the bill, with Charlie Edwards’s challenge to IBF World flyweight holder Johnriel Casimero completing the world title hat-trick.
It is the Bristol-based boxer’s second defence of the title he won by beating Ryosuke Iwasa by sixth-round TKO last June. He went to the cards against Ivan Morales, brother of Erik, in May to make his first successful defence of the belt.
Darlington’s Hall, though, has title experience himself, he beat Vusi Malinga in 2013 to pick up the title currently held by Haskins before losing it to Paul Butler in his second defence, he drew against Martin Ward in the first one.
The fight also doubles up as a “Repeat or revenge?” encounter due to the fact that Haskins beat Hall in their 2012 tussle for the EBU title.
“September 10 has just become even bigger with this domestic World title grudge match added to the card,” said Hearn when announcing the contest. “It's a real 50-50 clash and with the domestic 118lbs scene really hotting up, it's a must win for both fighters.”
Tickets go on sale today (Wednesday July 13) at midday to O2 Priority members at www.theO2.co.uk.
Further tickets go on sale on Thursday July 14 at midday to Matchroom Fight Pass members from the Fight Pass area at www.matchroomboxing.com and the venue and AXS pre-sale before tickets go on general sale at www.theO2.co.uk.
General sale tickets will be released on Friday July 15 at midday from www.theO2.co.uk.
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