Lee Haskins outpoints Stuart Hall, retains bantamweight title

— -- LONDON -- Bantamweight titleholder Lee Haskins vowed to knock out his British countryman and former titlist Stuart Hall in the sixth round when they met on Saturday night on the Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook undercard at the sold-out O2 Arena.

But while Haskins whiffed on his prediction, he grinded out a unanimous decision, winning on scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 to retain his title for the second time. ESPN.com scored the fight 114-114.

Haskins controlled most of the first half of the fight before Hall came on very strong in the final third, when Haskins appeared to be winded.

"It's hard not to tire against someone like Stuart," Haskins said. "I feel like I was winning the fight clearly with my shots. I made him miss a lot and I think that is what won the fight for me.

"You try boxing this guy. He just keeps coming forward, forward, forward. He's like a pit bull and take it from me -- he hits very hard. I am not stupid enough to stand here and get caught by big shots. I'm not here to show I'm the toughest man in Britain. I'm here to win fights and get paid."

The 32-year-old Haskins (34-3, 14 KOs) and Hall, 36, were meeting in a rematch of Haskins' 2012 unanimous decision to win the vacant European title. Now Haskins is 2-0 against Hall (20-5-2, 7 KOs), whose four-fight winning streak came to an end. He was bidding to regain the 118-pound world title he held from December 2013 to June 2014.

Haskins and Hall were chippy with each other during the buildup and the emotion spilled over at Wednesday's final news conference when Haskins slapped at Hall as they faced off for a photo, forcing them to be pulled apart as tempers flared.

But early in the fight they showed a lot of respect for each other and meaningful punches were few and far between. Haskins appeared to win many close rounds in the first half of the bout on the strength of a decent jab that regularly caught a lunging Hall, who tackled Haskins to the mat in the fifth round.

In the seventh round, Hall landed a good left hand to the head that got Haskins' attention. He was out of sorts for a few moments but then regained his balance and began to jab again.

Hall's corner implored him to throw more punches and he tried, catching Haskins a few times in the eighth round that sent him on the run.

Hall continued to press forward and forced Haskins into retreat during the ninth round as the momentum seemed to swing his way. And then he hurt Haskins with a left hand in the 11th round.

Hall came out steaming toward Haskins to open the 12th round with the fight seemingly on the table. He was all over Haskins, who did his best to box and move away from the intense pressure.

"I could have edged it but I think I started a bit late," Hall admitted. "I thought it was closer than the points but I started late. It was silly and it is a bad night.

"I should have started a bit earlier. I gave him too much time in the first few rounds. I thought I did enough to maybe nick it at the end but in the first few rounds I didn't do enough."

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