STUART Hall will attempt to become the North-East's first European champion since Michael Hunter when he takes on Jamie McDonnell at the Doncaster Dome on Saturday, September 3.

Darlington's Hall will make a fourth defence of his British bantamweight title, while McDonnell will lay his European and Commonwealth belts on the line in a triple unification bout.

The fight represents the biggest challenge yet for Hall, who was a roofer before making his professional debut in April 2008.

The 31-year-old has subsequently won 11 of his 12 contests - the other was a controversial draw against Stuart McFadyen - but McDonnell is the toughest opponent he has faced by some distance.

The 25-year-old Yorkshireman claimed the European title when he knocked out Jerome Arnould in France 15 months ago, and has subsequently made two successful defences as well as winning a Commonwealth title fight against Nick Otieno.

"Stuart will be topping a big bill at the start of September in a fight that will unify the British, Commonwealth and European titles," confirmed Hall's manager, Frank Maloney. "We said we would make him that fight after his last win (over John Donnelly) and that's exactly what we've been able to do.

"It'll be one of the biggest domestic fights of the year and it's a great

opportunity for Stuart to take the next step forward in his career."

The undercard will feature the eagerly-awaited return of Tony Jeffries, who will step back into the ring some nine months after his last fight.

Sunderland-born Jeffries has been nursing an eye injury sustained in last December's victory over Tommy Tolan, and has spent most of his time recuperating in Los Angeles.

His September opponent is still to be confirmed, but with his career having stalled somewhat, Maloney is keen to get the Olympic bronze medallist back on track for a British title fight at the start of next year.

"Unfortunately, Tony hasn't been able to move forward at the pace he would have wanted because of injury, but injuries happen in boxing and you just have to get on with it," he said.

"He's been training extremely hard over in LA and if things go to plan, we're expecting him to be fighting for a title within six to nine months.

"Whether that's at super middleweight or light heavyweight remains to be seen, and it's a conversation I'm still to have with Tony. Let's get

September's comeback fight out of the way and go from there."

Maloney added to his North-East stable over the weekend, signing up Newcastle heavyweight Courtney Clift on a two-year contract.

Clift, 30, enjoyed a successful amateur career, and will make his professional debut in Bolton on Saturday, October 8.

"I met Courtney for the first time over the weekend and I've signed him up," said Maloney. "The plan is to have five fights in the first year, with an option for a similar sort of arrangement in year two.

"Everyone knows about my love affair with heavyweights. In my opinion, there's boxing at all the other weights, then there's the heavyweight division. Heavyweights are different, and they can pull in a totally different crowd.

"We started to develop Dave Ferguson in the hope that he would be the next big thing in the heavyweight division, and although that could still happen, I think it's fair to say that things haven't really gone to plan.

"There are some decent heavyweights out there - people like David Price, Dylan White, Tom Dallas and John McDermott - but from a North-East perspective, it would nice to have a genuine heavyweight contender to take some of the pressure off people like Stuart and Tony who are currently handling a lot of attention."