By Jim Dower: Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (49-5-1, 43 KO’s) showed that he still has his incredible knockout power on Tuesday night, stopping Cuban Rafael Pedro (20-9-1, 14 KO’s) with a big right hand to the head. The bout was stopped at 0:28 of the 1st round by referee Samuel Burgos.

All it took from the 38-year-old Briggs was a single right hand to topple Pedro over, sending him to his third fourth straight loss. Briggs, who came into the fight weighing 270, never was able to get warmed up in the fight before it was over. The bout was only Briggs’ second fight in the past three years. He lost his WBO heavyweight title to Russian Sultan Ibragimov in 2007. Following that defeat, Briggs disappeared from boxing for two years until resurfacing last year against journeyman Marcus McGee. Briggs won that fight with a 1st round knockout, but the fight results were later changed to a no contest after Briggs tested positive for an illegal substance.

Briggs still has the power to be a factor in the heavyweight division, but he needs to be much more active than he’s been in the past three years. he’ll be turning 39 in December, and unless he plans on winning another heavyweight title late in his career the way that George Foreman did in the late part of his career, Briggs is going to have to speed up his career in a big way. With him knocking his over-matched opposition out so easily, he could probably fight four times a month and quickly be in contention for a title shot within a short time.

Briggs needs to be much more active and he needs to go after one of the top heavyweight contenders like Alexander Dimitrenko and look to get positioned in the top 10. WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko desperately needs a well known opponent and Briggs, if he’s fighting often and still knocking out his opponents, he could give Vitali what he’s been looking for in the way of a well known opponent.

In other action on the card:

James Bryant TKO 1 Andrew Maxwell
Yasnay Consuegra UD 4 Jerry Butler
Sergey Karpenko KO 3 Robert Alvarez