Shannon Briggs destroys Maurenzo Smith in 1st round knockout

By Boxing News - 04/12/2014 - Comments

By Jim Dower: 42-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (52-6-1, 46 KO’s) made a successful comeback last Friday night with an impressive 1st round knockout win over 36-year-old journeyman Maurenzo Smith (12-9-3, 9 KO’s) at the Double Tree Westshore Hotel, in Tampa, Florida, USA. Briggs landed three hard right hand body shots that sent Smith down on the canvas. He wasn’t able to get up, and the fight was halted at that point. For Smith, it was his 7th defeat in his last 9 fights since 2012.

Briggs hadn’t fought since his 12 round unanimous decision loss to former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in October of 2010. Briggs took a bad beating in that fight, and suffered a number of injuries.

In making a comeback at 42, Briggs is going to need to fight frequently if he’s to fight his way to a title shot by the time he hits his mid-40s. He showed good power last night in destroying Smith, but he didn’t look very fast in terms of hand speed. For Briggs to be able to get a crack at one of the world title belts, he’s probably going to need to fight at least once every couple of months and he’s going to need to face good opposition.

Beating Smith is a start, but Briggs will need to quickly progress past the point of overmatched journeyman to get to the contender level if he wants to get pushed up into the top 15 world rankings. Given Briggs’ age, it’s not likely that he’ll be selected by one of the heavyweight world champions unless he becomes a mandatory challenger.

For Briggs to do that, he’ll need to be someone in the class of Bermane Stiverne, Chris Arreola, Dereck Chisora, Tyson Fury, Mike Perez and Bryant Jennings. Briggs has the power to beat those guys if he can land his big shots, but the question is what happens when he gets hit back by them and dragged deep into the fights.



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