DARLINGTON’S former world champion Stuart Hall hopes for a crack at reclaiming the IBF bantamweight belt – and he could have to go to California to do it.

Super flyweight Paul Butler, who took the title off him courtesy of a split decision in Newcastle last month, has relinquished the crown without defending it after deciding drop back down in weight class.

It means the battle has already started to contest the bantamweight title belt once more, with American Randy Caballero in the driving seat to fight for the vacant title.

Who faces Caballero, however, is very much up for debate. He was down to be the mandatory challenger for Hall until a late deal was struck with him which allowed Butler to challenge instead.

Now he is determined to take his chance and Hall hopes he will have a quick opportunity to stake a claim for his former crown, despite knowing his last defeat would ordinarily have seen him drop down the official ranks which are due to be officially updated on July 14.

But it is understood that the Hall camp would like the IBF to take the closeness of the Hall-Butler fight in to consideration before deciding his new ranking; particularly given how there was a complaint made following the fight because judge Berit Andreasen had scored the contest 117-111 and that was out of sync with the other two judges’ 115-113 cards.

Either way Caballero is waiting to hear who he will face, with Japan’s fifth ranked Ryosuke Iwasa seen over in the United States as the most likely opponent. Others in contention are Japan’s Daiki Kameda and Mexican Julio Ceja.

Caballero, from Coachella Valley in California, said: “Now if there’s a chance of it being at Fantasy Springs, hopefully in August. We will have to talk to Golden Boy (promoters) and see what they say.”