By Dave Lahr: Former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) is no joke. This man has whittled down from 340 pounds to a muscular 248 and is ready to terrorize World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) on October 16th, at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. In an interview at easideboxing.com in the radio program On the Ropes Boxing Radion, the 38-year-old Briggs says “I’m going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Plan A is to knock him [Vitali] out in the 1st round. Plan B is to knock him out in the 2nd round. Plan C is to knock him out in the 3rd, and if I don’t knock him out at all, I plan on beating him in every round and that’s my main goal.”

I think Briggs is going to make an example of Vitali, and take advantage of his slowed reflexes by lighting him up in the first couple of rounds and get a quick knockout. South African Corrie Sanders was able to jump on Vitali early and stagger him with a hard left hand to the head in the 1st round of their fight six years ago in 2004. Sanders ran out of gas almost immediately, and was only rarely able to land a hard shot after that. He did land one big left hand in the 5th that snapped Vitali’s head back with a lot of force. It was a punch that would have almost definitely stopped Vitali’s younger brother IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Briggs isn’t too impressed with Wladimir, saying “Wladimir ducked me and he has chosen to fight smaller weaker opposition in fear that I’m a punhcer. Emanuel Steward [Wladimir’s trainer] knows me very well. He once trained me. So he knows what Wladimir will be up against, and again, I feel as though Wladimir is mentally weak, especially compared to his brother, so he wasn’t up for the challenge.”

Briggs says he’s dug a deep hole for Vitali, meaning he’s going to set a trap to take him out. I think Briggs can stop him if he opens up with his big power shots early and connects to Vitali’s chin with one of his howitzer shots. Vitali is getting old and will break down while trying to fight back hard.