By Jeff Aranow: In an impressive display of raw punching power, former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon “The Cannnon” Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs) stopped journeyman Emilio Ezequiel Zarate (20-17-3, 11 KOs) in the 1st round of a scheduled 10 round bout on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Briggs came out throwing blistering body punches from the opening bell. He connected with a monstrous left to the body that dropped the 34-year-old Zarate on the canvas. There would be no getting up from the knockdown by Zarate. The fight was stopped at 2:22 of the round.

Briggs showed awesome power in throwing to the body of Zarate. Briggs didn’t focus too much on throwing head shots, as he seemed to be able to get most of his power when he was dipping down to land his body shots with both hands. During his first career, Briggs was more of a head hunter. But since making a comeback in 2014, Briggs has focused solely on throwing body shots. The knockout was Briggs’ seventh 1st round knockout in his nine fights in his comeback. One of his opponents made it to the 2nd round and another went the full 12 rounds with him. It’s pretty impressive the way Briggs has been knocking out his opponents so quickly and almost always with body shots.

The win for the 44-year-old hard hitting Briggs paves the way for him to fight David Haye in September. Briggs says that Haye is “mediocre’ and a just a “hyped” fighter that he plans on exposing and ending his dreams of fighting IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua for his title and a big payday. Briggs says it’s going to be him that fights Joshua, not Haye. With the way that Briggs was punching tonight, I think he could very well beat Haye and end up comeback after three fights.

“England, I love you,” Briggs said to Dave TV after the fight. “I’m here to stay. They can’t get rid of me. David Haye – when I see you, I’m knocking you out cold. Let’s go champ.”