By Allan Fox: 42-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (55-6-1, 48 KO’s) could be fighting for the vacant WBA heavyweight title belt this Sunday against Ruslan Chagaev (32-2-1, 20 KO’s) after Fres Oquendo reportedly pulled out of the fight with Chagaev, according to Fightnews.com.
The Chagaev-Oquendo fight was scheduled to take place this Sunday at the Ahmat Arena, in Grozny, Russia, but Oquendo pulled out of the fight for some unknown reason.
The people who put together the Chagaev-Oquendo card want it to go ahead, but they need a replacement for Oquendo, and that’s why Briggs was asked.
Briggs isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at this time, and you have to guess that the WBA will have to agree on Briggs fighting for the title in order to make this fight a legit one for the vacant WBA title.
Briggs has fought 4 times since making a comeback in April of this year. He’s fought only lower quality opposition thus far. He defeated Raphael Zumbano Love by a 12 round decision last Saturday night in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Briggs wants a lot of money to take the Chagaev fight though, as he’s got a steep asking price for the fight might not be doable.
Briggs told Fightnews.com, “I was contacted with the offer to fight Chagaev just last night and I’ve been informed that there is a very big financial backing behind this event and they want badly for the show not to be cancelled. So I’m preparing like it’s going to happen…If they want to pay me the millions that a fight of this magnitude rates on this kind of notice for a former world champion like myself then I’m ready to board the flight today headed to Grozny, Russia to knock out Chagaev.”
Briggs might be able to get a nice little payday out of this fight, but there’s obviously little chance of him getting $1 million for a fight of this magnitude.
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