Briggs-Klitschko: Shannon needs to use uppercuts on Vitali

By Boxing News - 10/03/2010 - Comments

By Dave Lahr: As we saw in Vitali Klitschko’s 6th round stoppage loss to Lennox Lewis in 2003, he has no defense against a good uppercut. Klitschko showed in that fight that he’s a sucker when it comes to getting tagged with uppercuts, as Lewis was able to nail him again and again when Vitali would lean forward when the two fighters came near each other.

Briggs, 38, has an excellent uppercut that is comparable to the one that Lewis used to throw, except Briggs can throw his uppercuts with either hand. This is should be the primary weapon to use against the 39-year-old Vitali I their fight on October 16th at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany.

Briggs is going to get ample opportunities to throw his uppercuts because Vitali likes to smother his opponents when they get close, and he also likes to take rest breaks by holding. This is a necessity now that Vitali has aged a little in the past two years. He’s getting old, his hair is turning silver and along with it he’s losing his stamina. This is where Briggs needs to take advantage of the situation by grabbing Vitali with his left hand around the neck and then tagging him with an uppercut with his free hand.

Briggs has got to get the most leverage he can and make sure he lands his shots right on the chin to make sure he hurts Vitali and gets him out of there. Briggs has got to go all out in the first six rounds, because he’ll probably be too tired to do much in the 2nd half of the fight and will end up losing if he doesn’t load up with something big early on. We know from Lewis fight that Vitali has problems defending against uppercuts. We also know that the skin around his eyes are like thin rice paper.

This is why Briggs needs to focus on landing his shots to the eye area of Vitali, to ensure that he gets the blood flowing and makes Vitali almost blind in the ring from the blood dripping into his eyes and making it hard for him to see. The uppercuts may serve that purpose as well, although it’s not really the ideal kind of punch to use if you want to cut up your opponent. Briggs might be better off landing overhand rights and hooks if he wants to get Vitali bleeding badly.



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