Phillips Stops Llanes, Retains Title

Nearly nine months after his last bout, was Verno Phillips rusty Monday night?

Not quite, if Jaime Llanes’ wobbling frame was any indicator.

Unleashing a series of combinations, Phillips retained his World Boxing Organization junior-middleweight title before 3,475 at the Forum by stopping Llanes at 2:46 of the seventh round.

Triggering his flurries with a sharp left hook that often found Llanes’ body and chin, the 5-foot-8 1/2 Phillips buckled Llanes early in the third round after a shot to the body. But the 5-10 Llanes recovered and had Phillips struggling later in the round.

“The guy was much tougher than I thought he would be, he kept coming back, I give him credit for that,” Phillips said.

“The layoff affected me. I haven’t fought since October and I couldn’t really do in there what I wanted to do because he was so tall.

“But my hooks were the difference--he couldn’t stand my hooks.”

Phillips controlled the pace in the fourth, fifth and sixth, scoring a knockdown in the fifth on another combination that culminated with a left to the chin.

Llanes, who was coming forward in the early rounds, rose quickly from the knockdown, but never seemed to recover.

By the seventh, Phillips was in total control. He ended the fight with a left hook-right uppercut-left hook combination that sent Llanes lurching face forward to the canvas.

Referee Lou Moret stepped in before even starting a count.

Phillips, who last fought when he took the title away from Lupe Aquino, improved to 24-4-1, and scored his 13th knockout, the eighth in his last nine fights. Llanes is 27-3.

Earlier, lightweight Fabian Tejeda (38-3-2) won a unanimous decision over Mauricio Aceves (27-3).