By Danny Winterbottom

At the age of 34 Stuart Hall, 16-3 (7 KOs), believes he has finally found the perfect trainer in Birmingham legend Paddy Lynch.

Hall split with his long-time trainer Michael Marsden to hook up with Lynch, who at the age of 69 has come out of retirement, after losing his world title to bitter British rival Paul Butler.  “Stuey” is sparring unbeaten brothers Kal and Gamal Yafai every day at his new base in the second city as he prepares to win back the IBF bantamweight world title he lost in June when he faces unbeaten American Randy Caballero on October 25 in Monte Carlo.

Hall was given a huge boost earlier today when news broke that promoter Rodney Berman has managed to secure TV backing thanks to the help of Mick Hennessy.  The show will be broadcast live on Channel 5.  It is the first world title show on terrestrial TV since Carl Froch’s decision win over Jean Pascal for the WBC Super middleweight title in December 2008.

“Paddy is showing me things in training that I have never seen before and I’m telling you now, I’m gonna be awesome in this fight!” Hall enthused during a chat with BoxingScene.

“The training we are doing has really opened my eyes.  I can’t believe that I won a world title doing the things I was doing before.  I used to travel to Leeds [from his home in Darlington] to train, but now I am here in Birmingham for six weeks I am getting loads of rounds in with Kal [Yafai] and spending more time in the gym, which is ideal preparation.

“The down side to being away from home is that I’m missing my wife and kids but it will all be worth it when I beat Caballero on October 25th.”

Following the euphoric high of his monumental world title winning effort against South African Vusi Malinga just before Christmas 2013, Hall came crashing back down to earth with a bang when Ellesmere Port’s precocious talent Paul Butler rose up a weight division and took his championship belt back down the motorway to Cheshire.

“That loss really hit me hard and I needed a change,” he explained.  “There are reasons I want to keep to myself, but basically that is what it was, I needed a change because I felt as though I went into the Butler fight in a much too negative frame of mind.

“They (team Butler) got under my skin during the build-up, I admit that.  But I put thoughts into my own head by watching too much of Butler on YouTube.  You watch fighters on the internet and start to think: ‘He looks tough and strong’, but when you get in the ring with them they aren’t stronger or tougher than you—it’s a mental thing.”

In a closely contested battle, it was Butler who prevailed on points in front of Hall’s supporters, leaving the former Ibiza party boy frustrated and without his precious world title belt.

“I believed that I had done enough to win the fight but in a way it was a blessing in disguise because I needed to take a step back and look at what was happening behind the scenes” said Hall.

“I was doing way more than a boxer should be going into a big fight, but that is in the past and I am happy and positive at the minute.”

It is an interesting confession from a tough, no nonsense man like Hall that despite the confident prefight talk dished out routinely by fighters he struggled with self-confidence and belief in his own ability in the past.

“I don’t believe in myself as much as I should,” he said, following a moment’s hesitation.  “People say to me: ‘Stuart, you have got to believe in yourself, you won a world title.  A WORLD TITLE!’”

When Hall was ripping up the club scene in Ibiza on a hedonistic one-way ticket to oblivion some 15 years ago he could never have imagined that on October 25 in the glamorous surroundings of Monte Carlo he would have the chance to become a two time world champion.

Standing in his way is the young, 23, and unbeaten American Randy Caballero, 21-0 (13 KOs), who looked a serious operator when he travelled to Kobe, Japan, and stopped Kohei Oba in the eighth-round of an official eliminator in April.

Caballero is very good but Hall says he is done with over analysing his opponents.  He said: “I’m not going to make the mistakes I made during the build up to the Butler fight.  Yeah, Caballero is very decent but people can tell me he is this and he is that but I won’t be listening to them.  The way I am feeling after only a short time working with Paddy, Caballero is in for a shock.”

Hall and Butler—who vacated the 118lbs title he won from the North East man—both take to the ring on the same night (Oct 25), albeit in different locations.  Whilst the Darlington man rubs shoulders with Monte Carlo’s elite his Ellesmere Port rival should have faced IBF super flyweight champion Zolani Tete in Liverpool, but the South African suffered a broken and Butler will now have to wait for his shot at a second world title.

Despite the likely hood of the Ellesmere Port star staying at Super flyweight, Hall left no doubts that he would love the chance to avenge his defeat and eventually face old foe Jamie McDonnell in a rematch of their British, commonwealth and European title fight that the Doncaster man won on points in 2011.

“Butler has already stolen my title,” Hall laughed.  “If he lost [against Tete] I would tell him to step back up to bantamweight and I’d give him another shot.  Jamie McDonnell is still the fight I want because that is the big one out there for me and that is why I have to win this fight against Caballero.”