By Nate Anderson: Heavyweight Michael Kirby (4-2-1, 2 KOs) stopped OPBF heavyweight champion Nathan Briggs (20-5, 16 KOs) in the 9th round tonight in a scheduled 12-round bout at the Mansfield Tavern, Mansfield, in Queensland, Australia.
Kirby, 33, hurt Briggs with a right hand in the 9th and then landed a flurry of shots to put Briggs down a minute into the round. Briggs attempted to make it up to his feet but was counted out by referee Phil Austin.
Briggs, the brother of light heavyweight Paul Briggs, had struggled through much of the first half of the fight due to the high pressure, smothering offense of Kirby. Briggs, 6’4″, was forced to fight much of the time at close quarters where he wasn’t able to get as much on his punches as he could on the outside.
The two fighters had previously fought before last year in May with Briggs winning by an eight-round decision. This time, however, Kirby gave Briggs big problems with his high work rate and his hard combinations.
Kirby came out fast in the 1st round, getting in close and landing a massive amount of short hooks to the head of Briggs. It was all Briggs could do to get a few hooks off his self, as Kirby rarely let up with his nonstop punching. Often times, Kirby would appear to slip in a forearm or two when throwing his short hooks. Later in the fight, he would receive multiple warnings from the referee for throwing forearms but no penalization.
In the 2nd round, Kirby continued to throw a lot of punches and staying on top of the taller Briggs. Though Briggs was now starting to throw some big shots from time to time, it was still easily a round that went to Kirby due to his impressive work rate. Briggs’ face was starting to turn red from the huge amount of punches he had been hit with.
Briggs made it somewhat closer in the 3rd round, as he unloaded with some hard right hooks to the head of Kirby. For his part, Kirby looked to be tiring out, his punches losing much of their power.
Briggs came on in the 4th round, landing some huge left hooks and right hands to the head. Briggs began to move more along the edges, staying away from just standing directly in front of Kirby like he had previously been doing in the other three rounds. The movement prevented Kirby, an excellent inside fighter, from landing his short hooks.
Kirby received a warning early in the 5th, his first warning, for throwing forearms. Later in the round, after Briggs landed a big right hand, an angry Kirby fired back with several hard shots and put Briggs down with a right hand. Briggs got up and the action resumed and immediately Kirby was given a second warning for throwing forearms. Briggs seemed to recover well, and took the fight to Kirby, landing some hard right hooks and succeeding in causing Kirby’s nose to bleed.
In the 6th round, Briggs fought well, letting his hands go and hammering Kirby with powerful hooks to the head and body. Part of the reason for Briggs’ success during this round was that he was staying more on the outside, a move that allowed him to get more leverage on his shots while at the same time keeping him out of range of Kirby short punches. Late in the round, Kirby received another warning for the use of his forearm.
By this time, he probably should have been penalized because he had been warned before and had been throwing the forearms from round one. Kirby was cut on the right side of his eye from a right hand near the end of the round. The cut wasn’t in a bad place though.
Kirby hurt Briggs with a storm of punches early in the 8th round. However, Briggs came recovered from the shots and came on in the last half of the round to perhaps win the round by outworking Kirby. In the 9th, Briggs was fighting well, landing some nice right hands. However, after hitting Kirby with a huge left hook to the head, Kirby fired back with a blizzard of punches hurting Briggs and sending him back peddling to the ropes.
Kirby then followed after him and landed three more short hooks to the head to send Briggs down on the canvas. Briggs attempted to make it to his feet but rose just as the referee Phil Austin reached the count of 10. It hardly mattered, because he was badly hurt and likely would have been taken out should the fight have continued much longer.