Cory Spinks vs Vernon Phillips? Who will win...?

Question

Cory will have his father and uncle in the corner for this fight, will that make a different? Is he a better fighter than his father was?

Answer 1

I agree with Blogbaba, I'm not a big Spinks backer, he is not that great, Verno's time has came and went, this is his last hurrah but he'll go out swingin' but not enough, Spinks by decision.  And although his father was an OK fighter, I don't see Cory being better than his dad today, maybe he has time to prove me wrong.

Answer 2

Spinks by decision in a boring snooze fest.  Phillips will have to press the fight or there won't be one.  I doubt Spinks will do more than counter punch off Phillips aggression, but it will be enough for Spinks to pitty pat his way to the win.  Cory has the punching power of a humming bird, but he is a slick boxer with better than average defensive skill.  I would like to see Phillips force Spinks to fight him, but it is unlikely, Spinks has always been a safety first boxer rather than a puncher, and he disgraced himself against Taylor, but he is good enough to take Phillips.

No, his corner men won't make a difference, and yes he is a better fighter than his father was.  With all due respect to Leon a 26-17-3 record doesn't strike fear into the hearts of most heavyweights even if he once graced the cover of sports illustrated magazine for beating Ali.  Cory's 40-4 and whether you like his style or not, it is effective against most in his weight class.  I am not a big Cory Spinks fan, he lost me when he didn't even try to win against Jermain Taylor.  In my opinion it tarnished his legacy worse the the Judah KO loss, but he has been effective most of his career, hopefully the Taylor fight was a fluke.

Phillips has a punchers chance but I don't see him out pointing Spinks, he needs to KO Cory to get the win in this one.

Answer 3

I think that Cory Spinks outpoints Verno Phillips by a closer than expected unanimous decision.  They have both not fought in a long time, but Spinks has not fought in longer and the last time he did fight, he struggled to make 160 pounds (in his terrible losing effort to Jermain Taylor) despite the fact that he is a titleholder at 154 pounds.  I think that Phillips will come in highly motivated and give Spinks a lot of trouble early, but eventually, Spinks will settle down and start to outbox him from his southpaw stance.  

As you stated, he will not have his longtime trainer, Kevin Cunningham who guided him throughout his whole career.  Honestly though, I don't think it will really make a difference because Spinks is at the stage of his career where he knows what to do and has already been taught what he needs to know.  I do believe that he is better than his father was. Yes, Leon did beat Muhammad Ali for the undisputed heavyweight championship, but Ali was well past his prime, did not take Spinks seriously (Leon only had 7 fights at the time), and came into the fight out of shape.  And afterwards, Leon lost the title back to Ali, and then spent the rest of his career as a journeyman.  Nothing against him, but I personally believe that Leon was the worst heavyweight champion in history.  At least with Cory, he is a world class fighter who has won multiple titles and was once considered the undisputed welterweight champion (even if he is boring as h**l to watch).

Edit: We were all wrong with our predictions!- Verno Phillips won a split decision.  I did not see the fight the way that Colonel Bob Sheridan was announcing it (he only gave Phillips one round).  I thought it was a close fight that could have gone either way and if I had to pick a winner, it would have been Spinks by a close decision, but honestly, I don't have a problem with the decision.  The reason is because Phillips made it a fight by backing Spinks up and putting constant pressure on him, and he also rocked him on more than a few occasions.  And I was also happy for Verno Phillips because he's had more than a few close decisions go against him, so it was nice to see a close one go his way for a change, and to see him win a world title for the third time at this stage of his career is pretty nice.