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Comebacking Phillips scored arguably the best win of the second phase of his career with a win over Kenyan Michael Muya, who had previously lost only narrowly to Bennett. Phillips looked strong and got his punches off nicely to score a wide points victory. After so long out, he looks to have the goods certainly at British level in a competitive weight class.
Also on the undercard, Yorkshireman James Hare started on the road back to the limelight with a nice showing against Welshman Jason Williams. Hare watched and measured his opponent in the first before dropping him in the second with a textbook left. The volley of shots that followed was impressively accurate and the fight was stopped. Hare is a nice stylist and still could do well at welter.
This weekend brings a couple of shows but the highlight has to be Audley Harrison's tackling of veteran Julius Francis in Bristol. Francis pulled himself out of last week's Gravesend show for this one, coming in as a late replacement for the ill Nicolai Popov. It's Harrison's first crack against an upper-tier British heavyweight but of the handful that are around, Francis is assuredly the least challenging, having lost his last six and put up a very negative showing against Matt Skelton in his most recent.
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The undercard is littered with good domestic-level fighters, from up-and-comers such as super featherweight Carl Johanneson and middleweight Scott Dann to troopers like Toks Owoh.
Over in Dagenham, Argentinian warhorse Pablo Sarmiento faces Colin Lynes for the IBO light welterweight title the South American won from Billy Schwer in the Luton man's final bout. Sarmiento is well known to British crowds after the Schwer result and victories over Gary Rider and Michael Ayers (the latter a revenge win). Now 33 and getting towards 50 fights (34-12-2), he is at the opposite end of the scale to the 26-year-old Essex man. Lynes is a decent boxer but having won 24 from 25 has had what some might call a 'well-managed career'. It's doubtful whether the home fighter has the power to stop the South American, and I'd pick the champion to grind out a points victory in this one.
Over in Dortmund, Zsolt Erdei defends the WBO light heavyweight belt against Arentinian Hernan Hugo Garay. Garay is inexperienced but still holds the South American title, and is a good test for Erdei, who had the belt rather handed to him by Julio Gonzalez and has a similarly low number of fights. Mario Veit versus Kabary Salem is the undercard highlight for the interim version of Joe Calzaghe's WBO 168-pound title. Salem doesn't really have the power to stop the experienced German, which leads to the most probable outcome being a Veit points win.
The Brian Magee - Robin Reid clash that has been mooted for so long sounds like it will be announced on Thursday.
Clinton Woods has been slotted into an eliminator for the IBF light-heavy belt. Woods lost to Glencoffe Johnson for the vacant belt in February, and Johnson meets Joe Calzaghe on June 5th in his first defence. Woods will face another tough Jamaican in Richard Hall at the end of May.
David Haye's opponent next week will be former world class cruiserweight, 'King' Arthur Williams. Williams may be ageing but this is a big step in quality for Haye. Full review, here on TalkingBoxing.com next week.
Past British Updates
March 10 | March 18 | March 24 | March 31 | April 7 | April 14 | April 21 | April 28
