By Jim Dower: In a horrible mismatch, 42-year-old former World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (57-6-1, 50 KOs) an out of shape looking Richard Carmack (12-6, 10 KOs) in a 1st round knockout last Saturday night at the Isle of Capri Casino, in Lula, Mississippi, USA. Carmack weighed 300 pounds.

Briggs knocked Carmack down several times in the 1st round. Briggs finished him off with a left to the body. Referee Randy Phillips halted the fight at 2:59 of the round.

It’s unclear what Briggs hopes to gain from fighting opposition such as this because this fight wasn’t even remotely competitive. Carmack looked like a 3rd tier fighter who didn’t belong in the ring with Briggs.

For Briggs, this is his 6th straight victory since launching his comeback earlier this year in April after being out of the ring for four years. It looks like Briggs is going to focus his comeback in facing entirely 3rd tier opposition rather than face contenders.

The sanctioning bodies will have to rank him based on these wins rather than holding off until he faces and defeats actual contenders. Briggs has used this same format of facing weaker opposition to get world title shots in 2006 and 2010.

The WBA has Briggs now ranked at #7 without him having fought anyone that resembles a contender. This suggests that Briggs might be able to get a world title shot without him having to face a contender if the WBA keeps pushing him up the rankings after wins over weak opposition.

Since Briggs started his comeback this year, he’s beaten the following heavyweights: Maurenzo Smith (12-8-3), Francisco Mireles (17-8), Matthew Greer (16-12), Raphael Zumbano Love (34-7-1), Cory Phelps (16-6-1) and Richard Carmack (12-6). To show you how poor those fighters were, Briggs stopped five of those six opponents in the 1st round.

In other boxing action on the card:

Joey Bryant KO 1 Richard Dinkins
Codie Shuffield UD 6 Omar Barefield
Robert Hill MD 4 Laurence Purifoy
Chris Doyle SD 4 William Johnson