By Dan Ambrose: IBF light middleweight champion Cory Spinks (36-4, 11 KOs) defends his title tonight against 37 year-old former IBF/WBO light middleweight champion Verno Phillips (41-10-1, 21 KOs) at the Scottrade Center, in Saint Louis, Missouri. Spinks, 30, hasn’t defended his IBF light middleweight title in a year dating back to February 2007, when he defeated Rodney Jones in a 12-round unanimous decision. Instead of defending his title against other challengers, Spinks decided to take on then WBO/WBC middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in May 2007, losing a 12-round split decision to Taylor. Spinks’ choice for an opponent – Verno Phillips – is somewhat disappointing, in that Phillips, ranked a generous #7 in the IBF, has been on the decline for some time.
Spinks most certainly could have found a better opponent than this, like James Kirkland, Sechew Powell, Joel Julio, Roman Karmazin, Sergio Martinez, to name just a few. Phillips’ ranking of number 7th appears highly dubious given his advanced age and coupled with his lack of victories over quality opposition in the past 10 years. In fact, he’s done little in recent years other than lose twice to Kasim Ouma and once to Ike Quartey, who was making only his second fight in five years.
Other than that, Phillips has beaten Julio Garcia, Teddy Reid and Carlos Bojorquez, none of them exactly championship material. Earlier in his career, Phillips was a good fighter, albeit not exactly spectacular either. Perhaps his best win of his career was in 1998 when he stopped Julian Jackson by a 9th round TKO. However, by then Jackson was at the very end of his career and clearly wasn’t the same fighter he was earlier. Phillips has little chance of beating a fighter the caliber of Spinks. Perhaps his only chance at winning would be if he can get in a lucky punch, and knock Spinks out, but it won’t be an easy task. Spinks is lightening fast and is hard to hit without taking multiple counter shots in return.
As for Spinks, he’s lost two out of his last four fights, and really, he’s actually lost three out of his last four, as he appeared to lose his fight to Karmazin in July 2006, but was given a gift decision. Instead of giving Karmazin a rematch, Spinks decided to take on an easier opponent in Rodney Jones, who he beat easily. The there was the fight against Taylor, a bout in which Spinks did a good job in making the fight close but not quite enough to get the victory. Unfortunately, Spinks has done nothing in the way of defending his IBF light middleweight title up until now. This is why it’s so disappointing to see him take on a fighter like Phillips rather than a more credible one like Powell or Kirkland. Hopefully, once this fight is out of the way, Spinks will finally take on a decent opponent, preferably Powell.