Ontario, CA -- (Sports Network) - Paul Williams suffered a cut over his right eye from an accidental head-butt in the first round, but rallied to pound Verno Phillips and win by eighth-round technical knockout to capture the interim WBO junior middleweight title.

Williams (36-1, 27 KOs) had blood flowing over his eye due to the butt in the first and it seemed to worsen in the second, but he fought back in the third. Williams took over from there and was accurate with his jab and delivered crunching body shots.

That wore down Phillips (42-11-1) and at the end of the eighth round, on advice of the ring doctor, referee Jon Shorle called a halt to the bout.

It was the third straight TKO victory for Williams, who beat Carlos Quintana in June and then topped Andy Kolle in September, with both of those bouts ending in the first round. He relinquished his WBO welterweight title to move up in weight class to fight Phillips, who was coming off a split decision win over Cory Spinks in March.