By Scott Gilfoid: Last Saturday night, 44-year-old Shannon Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs) attempted to confront David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) in New York, but Haye took off in another direction to avoid him. The two were both at the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
It was the perfect opportunity for Haye to help create interest in the Briggs fight by the two of them standing and jawing at each other. Just why haye would pass up this opportunity is anyone’s guess. Does he not want to fight Briggs now? If so, then what happened for him to lose interest?
The way that Haye walked quickly away from Briggs leaves one to guess that the two of them may not be fighting each other in the future. Briggs agreed to fight on Haye’s undercard of his last fight against Arnold Gjergjaj last May with the understanding that the two of them would face each other. It was said that Briggs would fight Haye in September. However, it’s two months later and the two of them still don’t have a fight contract for a fight between them, and there are some boxing fans who believe that Haye won’t be fighting Briggs.
You can understand why Briggs would be anxious to get the fight with Haye, because it would be a nice payday for him. Briggs thought he was going to get the fight. If he doesn’t face Haye, then he would have wasted his time traveling around trying to get a fight against him for ages.
Haye hasn’t said who he plans on fighting next. He wants to challenge IBF champion Anthony Joshua for his title, but he’s not doing much to create interest in a fight between them by taking on live bodies. Since Haye came back from a long three and a half year layoff earlier this year, he’s beaten two little known heavyweights in Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj. A fight against Briggs would be the same type of fight for Haye as those two guys, but at least it would be a guy with a name rather than a continuation of no named opponents.
At this point, it’s unknown if Haye is going to ever fight Briggs. If Briggs doesn’t get the fight, then you have to feel sorry for him, because he got his hopes up in getting this fight. Briggs would need to move on and look for some other guy to fight. Briggs beat Emilio Zarate by a 1st round knockout last May.