Briggs: “He [Vitali] is going to be fighting for his life from the opening bell”

By Dave Lahr: Former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) is ready to take the head off of World Boxing Council (WBC)heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) on October 16th in their title fight at the O2 World Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany. The younger, faster, more powerful Briggs will be looking to jump all over the 39-year-old Ukrainian at the opening bell next month and stop him in an impressive fashion and take his WBC strap from him. Briggs has got the power to deaden Vitali’s senses in an instant, and he’s certainly got the hand speed and size to make it happen. Klitschko has been matched up against either weak punchers or much smaller fighters since he staged his comeback two years ago.

Briggs is neither weak or small, and he’s going to give Vitali a whipping that he won’t soon forget. Briggs had this to say about the aging Vitali: “When I finally get Vitali in that ring, he’s going to be up against a determined Shannon Briggs. I’m his size. I’m even more powerful than he is. He can’t keep me away by holding out his left arm and trying to wrap me up like those Klitschkos usually do. Vitali’s next fight will be nothing like Wladimir’s last fight. He [Vitali] is going to be fighting for his life from the opening bell.” How true. The Klitschko brothers usually have a big size advantage against their opponents, which allows them to either lazily hold out their left arm to prevent their opponents from getting near enough to punch them or they just grab their opponents in a clinch to keep them from throwing any punches when they get near.

The referees just let them do this instead of warning, penalizing or disqualifying them. For example, in Wladimir’s recent fight with Samuel Peter, he was allowed to clinch 8 to 10 times per round without any warnings. He was also able to hold out his left hand and use it basically as a long stick to keep Peter from getting near him. A referee that’s on his job will stop the action and warn the fighter that he can’t do this. Wladimir received no warning and kept doing that for the entire fight. If I was in the corner of Peter, I would have been screaming my head off to get the referee to do his job.

I would have pulled out the rule book in between rounds and pointed out where it says that fighters can’t just stick their arms out and use it as a pushing stick to keep their opponents from getting close. If that was allowed, we’d have 7-foot fighters dominating the heavyweight ranks because they could just use their long arms to keep their opponents from getting near them.

Briggs is going to tear into Klitschko the second the fight stats, and get him backing up the way that he always does when under attack. But Briggs isn’t going to back off. He’s going to keep attacking and going for the paper thin skin around Vitali’s eyes and get him bleeding. Once Vitali is cut up like he was in his 6th round stoppage loss to Lennox Lewis in 2003, Briggs is going to batter and stop the nearly blind Vitali.

Briggs wants to unify the heavyweight titles after he beats Vitali, saying ‘Vitali is just the beginning. After I take him out, David Haye, the little cruiserweight with the heavyweight mouth, is next and then Wladimir after that. In David Haye’s recent silly video rant explaining why he’s terrified to fight the Klitschkos, he made a comment calling me Shannon “I need my asthma pump” Briggs. That was an insult not only to me, but to people worldwide who suffer from the disease. Because of that, he has now moved himself into the number two slot after Vitali. Originally, the plan was to knock off Wladimir after I rid the boxing world of Vitali’s flailing kung fu octopus style, but Haye’s now #2 on the Cannon’s list.” I totally agree with everything that Briggs says. He needs to take out Haye next after he gets rid of Vitali.