Klitschko says he might fight Shannon Briggs

By Boxing News - 09/04/2015 - Comments

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By Tim Fletcher: After confronting IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) on Thursday at the Lucky Street boxing Gym in Hollywood, Florida, Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs (58-6-1, 51 KOs) was able to get the 39-year-old Klitschko to say that he might get him a title shot in the near future.

It appeared to be an embarrassing meeting for Wladimir. Briggs appeared to be trying to intimidate the Ukrainian confronting him during his workout in front of the media. Briggs openly pawed Wladimir with his hands, and when Wladimir touched Briggs back, he was told by Briggs “Don’t you ever touch me like that. Don’t you ever touch me face. For real. I’ll put hands on you.”

Wladimir told Briggs he’ll talk with him after his fight this Saturday night against Michael Marrone (21-4, 15 KOs). This is a slight step up in class for Brigg, who has been fighting very poor opposition since he launched his comeback last year. The Briggs-Marrone fight will be taking place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida.

Keep your distance. Let your beard grow so I can knock it off your face. Maybe we’ll fight. Let it grow so I can knock it off your face,” Wladimir said.

“Let’s make it happen,” Briggs said. “After I fight on Saturday night and you fight Tyson Fury, can we fight? Are you willing to fight me? I’m a party chaser. I’m a party chaser.”

“You’re interrupting me,” said Wladimir.

Briggs said “After your fight will you fight me?”

“You fight tomorrow and then we talk. Listen, you’re too dangerous, you’re too big,” Wladimir said as Briggs was leaving the gym.

It looks like Briggs’ pursuit of a fight against Wladimir has finally paid off for him because it appears that Wladimir is now seriously thinking about giving him a title shot.

Briggs is ranked #5 by the WBA at this time. Here are the fighters that Briggs has beaten since making his comeback in 2014:

Zoltan Petranyi
Richard Carmack
Cory Phelps
Raphael Zumbano Love
Matthew Greer
Francisco Mireles
Maurenzo Smith

Those are poor heavyweights, and not ranked in the top 15 by any of the world sanctioning bodies. If Briggs is able to get a title shot off of the opposition he’s faced, it would show to the boxing world that you can take an easy path to get a world title shot rather than having to work for it the old fashioned way by fighting top tier opposition to earn a shot.

Briggs’ last real fight against a quality opponent was five years ago when he was easily beaten by Wladimir’s older brother former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in October 2010. Briggs soaked up a terrible beating in losing a 12 round decision in that fight. He didn’t win around and was little more than a punching bag for Vitali for 12 rounds.

Oddly enough, the German boxing public are mostly interested in seeing Wladimir fight Briggs for some reason. They see the fight largely as an interesting match-up for Wladimir. The American public has shown zero interest in seeing a mismatch between Wladimir and Briggs, and it’s a fight that obviously wouldn’t work if it were staged in the United States.



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