By Jason Kim: Shannon Briggs (51-6-1, 45 KO’s) sustained a savage 12 round decision beating at the hands of WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) last Saturday night in Germany. Briggs took clean right hands all night long and yet never went down. In this case, Briggs may have been better off if he had been knocked out because it would have saved him from taking the punishment he ended up taking from Klitschko.

In the end, Briggs stayed on his feet, lost the fight by a lopsided decision, and even gave a brief interview to the German press after the bout had ended. However, immediately after that, Briggs had to be taken to a local hospital in Hamburg, Germany, where he was diagnosed with a broken nose, broken left orbital bone and a torn left bicep.

Those injuries are bad enough to call into question whether the 38-year-old Briggs should ever fight again. What was worse than the injuries, however, was the countless head shots that Briggs took in the fight. These weren’t the light variety or the kinds of punches that were partially deflected. Briggs was getting hit with shots that hit him with full force.

Starting in the 7th round, Vitali really started putting leather on Briggs and connected with a larger amount of big rights and left hands. If the fight had taken place in the United States, it’s very likely that Briggs would have been stopped much earlier in the fight because he wasn’t trying to fight back and was just getting hammered without end from Vital.

Briggs is already up there in age at 38, but when you take into account the savage beating that he just sustained, you have to wonder whether it’s all over for Briggs. It’s going to take him a long time for his left bicep to be repaired. And the facial injuries are very serious as well.

The healing from these injuries are going to take until next year and Briggs turns 39 in December. He may be better off hanging up the gloves, because it will take him too long to work his way into another shot at a title. Briggs has been fortunate to get two title shots without having beaten anyone. I doubt he’ll get a third shot at a title by facing nothing but 2nd tier fighters again.