By Matt Stein: Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) has a formidable task in front of him on October 16th in his heavyweight clash with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s). While the 38-year-old Briggs may have the bigger power and the faster hand speed, he’s not as tall as Klitschko and isn’t nearly as good of a boxer as he is.

And Briggs doesn’t have the same level of stamina that the big 6’7” Ukrainian possesses, meaning that the longer this fight goes the more likely it will be that Briggs will lose the fight. This is why Briggs needs to see this as a short six round fight. Briggs can’t think beyond six round, because if he can’t get to Vitali without those perimeters, chances are Briggs will run out of gas and labor over the last six rounds. However, the good news is that Vitali is very hittable nowadays and will be there for Briggs to tag if he’s aggressive. The key victory for Briggs is to put heavy pressure on Vitali immediately, get him backing up and fighting off his back foot.

Vitali doesn’t hit as hard when he’s trying to avoid incoming fire. Briggs needs to wade in, and throw everything he’s got at Vitali’s vulnerable face. Vitali has paper thin skin and a lot of scar tissue around his eyes from his fight with Lennox Lewis in 2003. Briggs needs to go after Klitschko’s eyes with the hardest shots he can land for six rounds. When the two fighters come together for a clinch, Briggs needs to take this opportunity to throw uppercuts to the head. Vitali has a nasty habit of leaning forward when in the clinch and his head is right there for an uppercut. Lennox Lewis took advantage of this over and over again in the 5th and 6th rounds of his fight with Vitali and had his face a bloody mess from those same uppercuts.

I haven’t seen Briggs use a lot of uppercuts in his fights, but he might want to brush up on using them for this fight because it can be a potent weapon when Vitali tries to slow Briggs down and buy some time by holding. Uppercuts are one weapon, and heavy pressure is another. Briggs also needs to jab Vitali as he’s coming in and try to hit Vitali hard with the jabs. Kevin Johnson was able to give Vitali a lot of problems using only jabs. Briggs needs to land some jabs on the way in, and once in close pound him with fast left hooks to the head, right hands and uppercuts.

Don’t worry about throwing to the body. Briggs just needs to go after Vitali’s paper thinn skin around the eyes. If Briggs can just stay in there for six hard rounds and land 20 to 30 good shots in those rounds, I can see Vitali’s face too bloody to continue. Briggs doesn’t even need to knock Vitali out. Briggs’ punches will cut him to ribbons if he lets his hands go.