By Dave Lahr: World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) may have made a huge mistake in taking on sleeping giant Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) as his next opponent on October 16th, rather than some stuff that Vitali could easily beat. Briggs, 38, is a huge puncher with one punch knockout power in each hand.
Sure, Briggs has a few silver hairs among his brown, but he’s a young 38, and probably has less gray than Vitali. Briggs hasn’t lost anything from his prime years. His power is still there, as is his fast hand speed. Those two factors are going to make him incredibly dangerous for the slow and old Vitali. This is the worst kind of opponent for Vitali to be facing on October 16th, because Vitali has been facing mediocre opposition with little power since making a comeback in 2008.
To go from smaller fighter with zero power to a huge 6’4” powerful and fast Briggs is going to be a huge shock for Vitali and I don’t expect to be ready for this encounter. Briggs hits harder than David Haye, and is bigger than him and faster. Instead of taking on shorter 6’2” Haye, Klitschko is going to be facing an opponent in Briggs who is almost as big as him and who has an identical reach of 80”.
What this means is that Vitali won’t have any advantages at all in this fight, other than his fans. When Briggs slapping Vitali around, those fans aren’t going to be saying anything at all, because they’ll be in shock as their hero is destroyed punch by punch from Briggs. The good thing is that Briggs will likely destroy Vitali quickly and with mercy by taking out as fast as possible. That way Vitali won’t have to suffer the way that some fighters do when they’re taking a long beating for 12 rounds.
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