By Jim Dower: At 39, most professional boxers have long since retired from the sport and found jobs outside of boxing. But WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) is still pumping away with his successful career, beating one heavyweight challenger after another and making it mostly look easy. In an AP article by Greg Beacham, Vitali says “I know what it is, but with time and age, I still feel good. I don’t have an answer when is the time [to hang up his gloves]. I don’t think it is.” Who can blame Vitali for not retiring now.

He’s making good money beating fighters that look horrible, like they don’t even belong in the top 15. On Saturday night, Klitschko will be fighting 38-year-old Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Briggs has done little to deserve a shot at Vitali’s title, other than beat three second tier fighters in a row after losing a one-sided 12 round decision to Sultan Ibragimov in 2007. The one-sided loss to Ibragimov tells you all you need to know about Briggs’ chances and credentials in the Klitschko fight. He appears to have been selected by Vitali based on his name alone rather than from Briggs having actually beaten someone.

You can make a serious argument that Briggs doesn’t deserve to fight for the title against Vitali. You can also say the same thing when he fought then WBO heavyweight champion Sergey Liakhovich for the title four years ago in 2006. To get that shot, Briggs beat 11 consecutive B level fighters before he was given a shot. It’s make you wonder how he’s being given title shots without having to prove that he deserves to fight for a title by beating at least one top contender along the way. Well, Briggs hasn’t beaten anymore remotely resembling a top contender to get his shot against Vitali, so you have to assume that he’s going to be in way over his head against Vitali in this fight.

This could be a bout just as dull as Klitschko’s last fight against EBU heavyweight champion Alberto Sosnowski in May. That fight was a terrible mismatch with Vitali toying with Sosnowski and seemingly carrying him for nine rounds until getting serious and stopping him in the 10th. Hopefully, Vitali doesn’t string this fight out for 10 rounds and make it boring as his last fight. That was painful to watch. Briggs has only chance of beating Vitali and that’s if he connect with something big and take the Ukrainian out. It’s probably not going to happen, especially if Briggs fights just to survive.