By Dave Lahr: 39-year-old WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) is going to be having his chin tested immediately by former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) in their title fight on October 16th at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Vitali has been doing well lately against the hand-picked opposition he’s been facing, but none of those guys can punch to save their life.

Vitali is going to be getting hit by huge bombs from Briggs from the ring of the bell in the 1st round. This isn’t a case where Vitali will be able to stick out his long arms and lean back to avoid getting his bell rung.

Briggs is almost as tall as Vitali, and has an identical reach as him. Briggs has better hand speed by far and bigger power. Briggs has everything going for him in this fight except for stamina.

He has to get to Vitali and try to dent his chin in the first six rounds or else he’s going to be in danger of wearing down and losing to the big Ukrainian. The thing I like about Briggs in this fight is that he’s fighting really well as of late, showing superb one-punch power and his hand speed is amazing for a big man.

Briggs has lost 20 pounds of useless muscle since his last fight against Rob Calloway in May. That’s going to make Briggs even faster than he already is. Vitali, in comparison, fights as if he’s underwater throwing shots. He’s moving even slower than before and he’s not going to be able to trade effectively with the more powerful Briggs would getting clipped a lot.

Briggs has two ways of winning this fight – knocking Vitali clean out with a single shot or cutting him to ribbons with power shots around the paper thin skin of Vitali’s eyes. Either way will do, but a crushing one punch knockout is obviously what Briggs prefers.

Briggs wants to make a big statement, because by destroying Vitali, it’s going to put Briggs on a collision course with WBA heavyweight champion David Haye next. That’s where the big money will come in for Briggs.

He’ll obviously fight a rematch with Vitali, but only after gets the well-paying Haye bout. That’s the fight that both of the Klitschko brothers have been salivating after. It’s going to be hilarious when Briggs beats both of the Klitschkos to Haye.