Phillips dethrones Spinks in St. Louis

By Marc Abrams

Verno Phillips captured the IBF Jr. Middleweight title with a split decision over Cory Spinks at the Scottrade Center in St.Louis

Spinks seemed to control the early action as the craqfty southpaw made Phillips miss while landing some pot shots from the outside. Phillips seemed to wake up in round seven as he came forward and started landing some power shots. In round nine, Phillips landed two hard shots at the end of the round with the latter being a hard right hand that alnded flush on the jaw of Spinks. that seemed to turn the momentum in Phillips direction as he came forward with more intent over the last third of the fight. The fighters traded on the ropes in the last round as the fight seemed to hang in the balance.

Phillips, 153 lbs of Denver won by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113 for Spinks. Phillips is now 42-11-1. Spinks, 153 lbs of St. Louis is now 36-5.

Devon Alexander thrilled his hometown fans with a terrific performance as he scored an easy unanimous decision over Miguel Callist in a twelve round Jr. Welterweight bout.

Alexander dominated every round as he put on a lot of pressure throughout the affair. In round seven, Alexander picked up the pace to another level as he drove callist back all over the ring and had the former world title challanger in trouble a few times in that round. Alexander continued to dominate as in round eleven he continued to drive a visibly tired Callist all over the ring with hard shots from both hands. callist could not stand up to immense the pressure in round twelve as he Alexander dropped him with a flurry.

The scores indicated the ease that Alexander won as they read 120-106, 120-105 and 120-105 to stay undefeated at 15-0.

John Jackson outclassed LeRoy Newton and stopped him at:210 of round one of a sched six round Lightweight bout.

Jackson scored two knockdowns, with the second coming from a huge over hand right that put Newton down for the ten count.

Jackson, 132 lbs of Miami is 11-1 with all wins coming early. Newton, 134 lbs of Michigan City, Indiana is now 6-11-1.

Marcus Johnson of Houston remained undefeated by landing a thudding liver shot and stopped Jose Medina in round one of a scheduled eight round Supe Middleweight bout

Rferee Kevin Champion reached the ten count at 1:57 of round one. Johnson, 168 lbs of Houston is now 14-0 with eleven knockouts. Medina, 170 lbs of Puerto Rico is 14-11.

Francisco Palacios scored a second round knockdown en route to a eight round unanimous decision over Zack Page.

Palacios is now 14-0.

FLASH QUOTES

IBF JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Attendance: 8,874

CORY SPINKS

“I felt good, just a little rusty that’s all. Verno fought a good fight. He came in to do a job, but I feel I did what I came to do. I am upset with myself. I let myself down.”

VERNO PHILLIPS

“I hit more with my left. They told me not to reach in. He is hard to adapt to. He is sneaky. You lean in, he will hit you with a one-two. I just relied on my experience. I did my best and I am still in the top 10. I had harder shots. I felt like his people were booing him because they felt he didn’t bring it.”

WBC CONTINENTAL AMERCIAS & WBA FEDELATIN SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

DEVON ALEXANDER

“I felt great tonight but I always feel I could have done better. I was happy with the knockdown in the last round, but I would have liked to have had a knockout. St. Louis has a new champion and I am going to stay around. I want to fight for a world championship by the end of the year.

KEVIN CUNNINGHAM (Alexander’s trainer/manager)

“Devon did what he had to do. There is not much you can do when a guy brings his track shoes instead of his boxing shoes. When Callist sat down in the sixth round and fought, Devon shut him out. Then he [Callist] got on his bike.”

MIGUEL CALLIST

“He was a strong man. Besides strong, he was a little younger. I did my best, but he had the home crowd on his side. Yes, I think I did enough to win.”