By Dan Ambrose: In a horrible mismatch fight that should have never been made in the first place, International Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Danny Green (30-3, 27 KO’s) stopped fellow Australian Paul Briggs (26-4, 18 KO’s) in the 1st round on Wednesday night at the Challenge Stadium, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. The ugly part about the fight, other than the fact that it was made in the first place, was that Briggs collapsed on the canvas in the first 20 seconds of the bout after the 37-year-old Green landed a left hand that brushed across the top of Briggs’ head and failed to connect. Briggs, who hadn’t fought in over three years, went down as if he was hit by a cannon. He attempted to get up at the count of eight, but fell back down.
Referee Pat Russell than stopped the bout at :29 of the 1st round. It was pretty pathetic. Green was completely angry, as was the crowd, who threw water bottles at Briggs as he departed from the arena. Green later apologized to the crowd for Briggs’ non performance, saying “He’s is not even a canine. Paul Briggs won’t be paid a cent.” The replay showed Green landing an earlier jab to the midsection of Briggs, and then moments later, Green threw a left that barely brushed across the top of Briggs’ head, ruffling up his hair but not actually connecting. Briggs, however, went down and looked as he had been hit with a sledgehammer.
Green really needs to take some responsibility for this; not for Briggs going down so easily without seemingly being punched, but for his choice of opponent. Since Green picked up the IBO cruiserweight title in August 2009, he’s fought an old Roy Jones Jr., a fighter named Manny Siaca and now Briggs, who hadn’t fought in ages. It looks as if Green is just milking his title rather than going after credible cruiserweight fighters like Marco Huck, Denis Lebedev, Steve Cunningham, Ola Afolabi, Krzystof Wlodarczyk, BJ Flores, Steve Herelius, Alexander Frenkel, Enzo Maccarinelli, Matt Godfrey, and Yoan Pablo Hernandez. Those are the guys that Green should be fighting, not old guys like Jones or ones that haven’t fought in a hundred years.
That just makes Green look like he’s milking his title for it’s worth. What he needs to do is lose the IBO title, and go after one of the major ones like the IBF, WBA, WBC or WBO. Those are the ones Green needs to be fighting for. After the Briggs fight, Shane Cameron was trotted out the center of the ring and he then called out Green. Cameron is Australian, but the dude is a heavyweight and weighs 230. How or why would they want to match Cameron against Green? Cameron was destroyed in two rounds by David Tua last year in October 2009. I hope Green doesn’t waste time fighting him. That’s what I mean. It just looks like Green is milking his title against local fighters rather than going after the best cruiserweights in the world. It reminds me a lot of what Anthony Mundine has been doing the past several years by fighting mostly in Australia against local fighters. Green is good enough to compete with the best cruiserweights in the world, and it seems like such a waste to see him seemingly content to fight lesser guys.
In other fights on the card:
Shane Cameron UD 10 Daniel Ammann
Brad Pitt KO 3 Oscar Siale
William Kickett UD 6 Jack Asis
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