By Jim Dower: World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) understands he’s up against a huge puncher in Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) in his October 16th fight at the World Arena, in Frankfurt, Germany. Klitschko, 39, is going to try and get to Briggs before he can land his big power shots. In East Side Boxing’s On the Ropes Boxing Radio, Vitali says “I will do my best to send Shannon Briggs to the floor before he gets me.”
Klitschko says he doesn’t want to get hit by Briggs’ big shots and will focus on using his reflexes and defensive skills to avoid getting hit hard by hm. It may prove hard to do, because Klitschko’s opponents in the past two years have all been smaller than him and without speed or power. Briggs, 6’4”, may be smaller than Klitschko but he’s bigger than Klitschko’s other recent opponents, and has just as long a reach as Vitali.
It’s probably safe to assume that Briggs is a lot faster than Vitali in terms of hand speed and is probably a bigger puncher than Klitschko as well in the first four rounds. After the 4th round, however, Briggs tends to fade, lose power and start to look sloppy. However, most of Briggs’ opponents have been knocked out by then, so his stamina is really called into question in his fights.
Hopefully, Klitschko hasn’t underestimated Briggs’ skills and what he has left, because Briggs will be very competitive for the first quarter of the fight. If Klitschko can somehow avoid getting caught by one of Briggs’ huge cannon shots, he could wear Briggs down and force a stoppage later on in the fight.
But Vitali has to avoid getting in any big exchanges while Briggs is still fresh and strong early in the bout. Briggs will be trying to take Vitali’s head off with every shot, knowing that’s his best chance at winning the bout. He’s not going to beat Vitali a decision, especially in Germany. Briggs has to knock Vitali out or else he’ll probably end up getting stopped.
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