Verno Phillips

Verno Phillips
Data
Birth Name	Verno Jeremias Phillips
Fight name	Cool ruler
Weight class	Light middleweight
nationality	United States
birthday	November 29, 1969
place of birth	Belize City
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.71 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	55
Victories	42
Knockout victories	21st
Defeats	11
draw	1
No value	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Verno Jeremias Phillips (born November 29, 1969 in Belize City , British Honduras ) is a former American professional boxer and world champion of the WBO and IBF in the light middleweight division.

Career

Phillips started professional boxing in the USA in 1988 and lost to Carl Sullivan (5-0), Larry Barnes (13-0) and Kenny Gould (13-0) during his build-up phase, but also won against Clarence White (11-0) ), Héctor Vilte (47-7), Marcelo Di Croce (35-4), Julio Vásquez (30-0), Mario Chávez (28-2) and Ricardo Nuñez (31-4).

With 21 wins, 4 losses and one draw, he competed in October 1993 against the Mexican ex-world champion Lupe Aquino (45-5) to fight for the WBO world title. He won it by tKo in the seventh round after the corner of the ring from Aquino gave up the fight. In July 1994 he defended the title through tKo in the seventh round against Jaime Llanes (27-2). By February 1995 he defended the title twice on points against Santos Cardona (29-4, 29-5) from Puerto Rico. In May 1995, his fight against Gianfranco Rosi (57-4) ended valuelessly after Rosi tested positive for performance-enhancing substances after the fight.

He finally had to surrender the world championship belt in November 1995 after a narrow point defeat to Paul Jones (24-8) and also lost his next duel on points against the Brazilian Peter Venâncio (33-1). In February 1997 he also lost to Silvio Branco (29-2). In his next three fights he sensationally beat Gianfranco Rosi (58-4), Godfrey Nyakana (29-2) and Julian Jackson (55-4).

With further victories, including against Jose Flores (43-9) and Bronco McKart (45-4), he was able to compete for the IBF World Championship title in June 2004, defeating the Mexican Carlos Bojorquez (22-4). In October 2004, however, he lost the title in the first defense to Kassim Ouma (19-1), to whom he was already defeated in a fight in 2001. He also suffered a defeat against Ike Quartey (35-2) in June 2005.

In March 2008 he was surprisingly able to win the IBF title again by winning points against Cory Spinks (36-4), but put it down in November without defending his title. After a subsequent loss to Paul Williams (35-1), he ended his career in 2008.

predecessor	Office	successor
John Jackson	Light Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) October 30, 1993 - November 22, 1995	Paul Jones

predecessor	Office	successor
Ronald Wright	Light Middleweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) June 5, 2004 - October 2, 2004	Kassim Ouma

predecessor	Office	successor
Cory Spinks	Light Middleweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) March 27, 2008 - November 2008	Cory Spinks

Web links

• BoxRec profile