Vincent Edwards "Vince" Phillips (born July 23, 1963) is an American former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 1989 to 2007. He held the IBF junior welterweight title from 1997 to 1999, notably scoring an upset victory against then-undefeated Kostya Tszyu to become champion.

Amateur career

As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

, Phillips won the U.S. National Golden Gloves in 1985, and the U.S. National Championships in 1985 and 1986, all in the

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

division.

Professional career

Phillips made his professional debut on February 28, 1989, stopping Octavio Guardado in two rounds. He would win his next 27 fights until losing to Anthony Jones November 18, 1993, due to cuts in the seventh round. On April 12, 1996, Phillips made his first world title challenge by facing WBA

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

champion Ike Quartey, but was stopped in three rounds. A year later, on May 31, 1997, he scored a major upset by defeating then-unbeaten world champion Kostya Tszyu to win the IBF junior welterweight title, which was named the Upset of the Year by ''The Ring'' magazine. Phillips made three successful title defenses throughout 1997 and 1998, until a fifth-round stoppage loss to Terron Millett on February 20, 1999. He would fight for another eight years, albeit never again for a world title, and ended his career with a ten-round

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...

loss to Alisultan Nadirbegov on May 6, 2007.Sukachev, Alexey (August 20, 2011)
"Eastern Europe News: Ibragimov, Nadirbegov, and More"
BoxingScene. Retrieved January 14, 2017.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

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Vince Phillips K-1 kickboxing record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Vince 1963 births Boxers from Florida Light-welterweight boxers American male kickboxers Kickboxers from Florida Welterweight kickboxers International Boxing Federation champions Living people Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers American male boxers Welterweight boxers Light-middleweight boxers World light-welterweight boxing champions National Golden Gloves champions Lightweight boxers 20th-century American sportsmen