STUART HALL cannot wait to return to the ring as part of Eddie Hearn’s NXTGen show in Newcastle next month – and is hoping a convincing victory will help set up another tilt at the IBF World Bantamweight title.

Hall has been out of action since suffering a controversial points defeat to reigning World champion Lee Haskins last September, with talk of a potential outing in Japan at the start of the year having failed to come to fruition.

He will look to blow away the cobwebs when he takes on an eight-round contest on the NXTGen show, which will also feature fellow North-Easterners Josh Kelly, Bradley Saunders, Warren Baister and Simon Vallily, but will also pay close attention to Haskins’ World-title defence against Ryan Burnett in a fortnight’s time.

Haskins rejected Hall’s offer of a rematch last autumn, but with the unbeaten Burnett set to start as a strong odds-on favourite in his hometown of Belfast, the picture at the top of the IBF rankings could be about to change.

If Burnett triumphs in two weeks’ time, Hall will hope to be at the front of the queue to face him, and his own outing at Newcastle’s Walker Activity Dome on June 23 could provide the perfect opportunity for him to produce a timely reminder of his talents.

“First things first, I’m just looking forward to getting back into the ring and fighting,” said Hall, who became the North-East’s first World champion for more than two decades when he out-pointed Vusi Malinga in Leeds in December 2013. “I haven’t been able to do that for a while, for a number of reasons, and I can’t wait to get going again.

“I did Khalid’s (Yafai) ring walk with him when he won the World title earlier this month, and that just made me think, ‘I want a piece of this again’.

“I’m looking forward to getting back fighting, but it’s also a chance for me to say to people, ‘I’m still here, I haven’t gone away, and I’m still at the top of my game’. By the time I fight, we’ll know what’s happened with Haskins and Burnett, and whatever happens there, I’m 100 per cent confident of beating either of them.”

Most neutral observers feel Hall beat Haskins when they met last autumn, but despite having dominated the second half of the fight at the O2 Arena, the verdict went against the Darlington-based 37-year-old.

The Northern Echo:

That clearly rankles, and Hall would still love to engineer a rematch with Haskins. A Burnett win next month would blow that out of the water, but while the 25-year-old is regarded as the rising star of the bantamweight division, Hall insists he would have no fears about facing the Northern Irishman in his Belfast backyard.

“If Burnett wins, I’ll be straight on to him for a showdown,” said Hall. “Let’s make no bones about it, he might look at it and see me as an easy option. He might think, ‘Stuey Hall – I can take him’. I hope he does.

“I hope he thinks that way because it would give me a chance to prove what I’m still capable of. I watched Burnett from ringside a couple of fights ago, and was he okay but nothing more. He looked fairly classy and good at his work, but he was a bit too tippy-tappy for me. If I was in there going at it from the word go, I don’t think he’d be able to cope.”

Hall’s opponent on next month’s Newcastle bill is still be confirmed, but whoever Hearn matches him with, he is confident he will gain the upper hand.

The Northern Echo:

Unlike for his most recent fights, he is doing the majority of his training in his native Darlington, working with local trainer Peter Shepp. He will head down to Birmingham for a couple of sparring sessions, but is enjoying being based at home.

“I’ve spent most of the last two or three years travelling here, there and everywhere, so it’s nice to be at home with the family,” he said. “I thought long and hard about it, but my mind was made up when I started training with Peter.

“He’s been great for me. His work is absolutely brilliant, and he’s had me doing fitness things I’ve never really done before. I’ll need to step up the sparring a bit in the couple of weeks before the fight, but I’m feeling really fit and could handle eight rounds tomorrow if I had to.”

Hall’s return will command plenty of attention, but next month’s show will be headlined by Sunderland’s Kelly, who is taking on Birtley rival Tom Whitfield.

Kelly boasts a two-from-two record since turning professional in the wake of the Rio Olympics, and is part of a strong crop of North-East fighters making heads turn.

“It’ll be a cracking bill and it’s good for the North-East to have so many fighters fighting at the same time,” said Hall. “Brad is always good to watch, and Josh is obviously starting to make a bit of a name for himself.

“He’s a talented lad. He’s probably a bit too showy at the minute – he spends too much of his time dancing around – but you can do that in the amateurs. He needs a couple of hard fights to show him what the pro game is all about. But he’s definitely got plenty of talent and could have a really bright future.”