Boxing News Boxing News
Tonight at Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, CA, a contest for the vacant WBO Light Middleweight title takes place between Verno Phillips and Paul Williams.
Phillips, 42-10-1 (21), resuscitated his career in March by defeating Cory Spinks for the IBF 154 pound belt, a title the Belize born Denver resident held previously in 2004 in addition to the WBO Light Middle crown Phillips owned during 1994-5.
Facing Phillips will be WBO Welterweight Champion Paul Williams, 35-1 (26), a 6-1 southpaw who will tower over Phillips with a five inch height advantage and an amazing 13 inch edge in reach.
This bout is a big ask for the three time light middleweight champion at 39 years of age but if Phillips can slip the long jab of Williams and make the welterweight titlist engage in a draining fight on the inside, he could pull off the upset.
The incentive, aside of course from winning an additional world title, for Williams is liberation from the welterweight weight class and it’s confining 147 pound limit, no easy task as the massive South Carolina native begins to fill out at 27 years of age.
A good bout on the undercard features America’s number one heavyweight contender, big punching local man Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola, 25-0 (22), who meets Houston based Travis “Freight Train” Walker, 28-1-1 (22), in an IBF title eliminator that is also for the NABF and WBC Continental Americas belts.
