By Dave Lahr: I have no doubts that former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) will be able to take WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko’s arm punches. But the major question is whether Klitschko will be able to handle Briggs’ huge power shots to the head and body? I don’t think the Ukrainian can. That’s going to be the major difference between these two fighters when they step into the ring on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany.

The age, the reach and the height of the two fighters is about the same. Briggs has the better hand speed and great power. Vitali has zero hand speed and power he can no longer use against fast fighters. Vitali can punch hard, but only if a fighter is standing perfectly still like a punching dummy and allowing Vitali to land.

The reaction time for Vitali’s reflexes have diminished to the point where he’s fallen back on arm punching in order to land. His arm shots have nothing on them. With Briggs, he really doesn’t need to hit Vitali all that much to beat him. All Briggs to do is hit Vitali enough in the face to tear up his paper thin skin, and then Briggs will win on a cut stoppage. This is what happened to Klitschko in the Lennox Lewis loss.

Klitschko had a lead, and looked like he was on the way to winning the fight. But every time Lewis would land a shot, he would open up Vitali’s paper thin skin like Lewis’ gloves were loaded with knives. Of course they weren’t. It was just Vitali’ tender skin around his eyes that was the main problem on that night.

Briggs will be bringing his Lewis-like power into the ring and will create huge cuts on Vitali’s face every time he lands anything. It’s going to get ugly after a few rounds as Klitschko stumbles around blindly with blood dripping into both eyes making it hard for him to see.

The referee will have to make a decision whether to anger all the Germans watching by stopping the fight and having their hero Vitali lose or else let Vitali get further ripped apart by Briggs’ cutting shots to the head. I’m really the referee does the wise thing and stops the fight rather than letting Vitali get torn apart in front of all those fans in Germany.