By Jim Dower: Former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (48-5-1, 42 KOs) made the shocking revelation on FNF that he’ll “Be a heavyweight champion again,” and also said that he wants to fight Klitschko. However, at 36, having lost his last fight 14 months ago against Sultan Ibragimov, it seems more and more remote the possibility of Briggs carrying out his promise. Indeed, he currently has no fight scheduled, which seems to make his statement appear to be little more than a pipe dream on his part rather than a real promise that he can carry out.
At one time, Briggs was one of the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, and with his huge 6’4″ 240 lb frame, long 80″ reach and big right hand, he was capable of ending a fight in the first couple of rounds. He previously defeated George Foreman – albeit the version, not the young one – by a 12-round majority decision in November 1997. However, Briggs would later get knocked down three times by Lennox Lewis, and eventually getting taken out in the 5th round in March 1998. More uneven performances would follow, a 10-round draw with Francois Both in 1999, an eight-round majority decision loss to journeyman Sedreck Fields in 2000, and finally a 10-round lopsided unanimous decision loss to 6’6″ Jameel McCline in April 2002.
Briggs seemed to get his boxing career together after that loss, reeling off 12 straight victories culminating with a 12th round TKO of Serguei Lyakhovich to capture the WBO heavyweight title in November 2006. Behind in the scores in the 12th and needing a knockout to win, Briggs came out slugging and took Lyakhovich out with a series of crushing right hand bombs. Briggs would turn out to be a heavyweight champion for the people, making himself available for interviews constantly and giving excellent sound bites.
However, just when he was at the top of his game, he began to experience problems with his health, suffering from pneumonia, which caused him to cancel a title defense against Ibragimov in March 2007. When Briggs did finally defend his title three months later in June, he still wasn’t fighting with the same stamina he had showed against Lyakhovich, appearing to be gasping for breath as if his lungs still hadn’t properly healed from his rough bout with pneumonia. As things go, Briggs would lose a 12-round unanimous decision to Ibragimov in a fight that was hardly close.
Ibragimov mostly danced on the outside and would come in for quick combinations, then scurry away to safety. It was a hopeless case for Briggs, who didn’t have the endurance to fight a smaller, quicker fighter like Ibragimov under the circumstances. Instead of right back into the ring and fighting again, Briggs has stayed away, concentrating on other options. It’s hard to see how this will help him when he does decide to come back.
But then again, when he’s healthy, he’s much better off in contrast to someone like Vitali Klitschko, who is both older and more plagued by injuries than Briggs. However, with that said, Briggs needs to move quickly because he looks to be aging physically, looking like a fighter in his 40s rather than his mid 30s. With his popularity, and his huge power in either hand, he’d have an excellent chance at taking out Wladimir Klitschko in the early rounds. He’d also give Samuel Peter, the WBC heavyweight champion, big problems because of Briggs’ size and powerful left hook-right hand combinations.