By Scott Gilfoid: Shannon Briggs (59-6-1, 52 KOs) says he had British heavyweight David Haye (27-2, 25 KOs) shaking in his boots when he confronted him recently at the O2 Arena in London, England during the Anthony Joshua – Charles Martin weigh-in. Briggs confronted Haye to ask him for a fight, and Haye seemed to get really nervous, especially when Briggs got in his face.
Briggs says he reached out and touched Haye’s hair and he didn’t do anything. Briggs says he saw Haye’s lip tremble at that time, and says he was scared.
Briggs will be fighting on Haye’s undercard this Saturday night against an opponent still to be determined at the O2 Arena. Haye is fighting some guy named Arnold Gjergjaj (29-0, 21 KOs). The casual boxing fans have likely never heard of the 31-year-old. Even many hardcore fans have never heard of him. I’d never heard of Arnold Gjergjaj until Haye signed to fight him. I see Gjergjaj as another Mark De Mori type of opponent, except maybe not even as good as him. Haye destroyed De Mori in one round last January in a sick mismatch at the O2.
“He’s got to fight me. I didn’t do this for nothing,” said Briggs to Fighthype about him traveling to the UK to fight on Haye’s undercard this Saturday night. “I came here to work and fight. I agreed with David if I fight on his card, he’ll fight me next. I’ve been ready. I’m 100 percent ready for him. He’s going to be easy work, trust me. David Haye is a hyped up fighter. He’s getting knocked out cold. He’s lucky if he goes one round with me. I’m in the best shape of my life. Everyone saw his face when I ran up on him at the O2, and I went up to him. Everybody saw him trembling. His lip was trembling. His lip was trembling!” said Briggs.
Oh man, Briggs is cracking me up. So he had Haye’s lip trembling. That’s bad. Haye must have been really worked up if his lip was trembling like that. Frankly, I’m surprised that Haye took the fight with the 44-year-old Briggs, because he can still punch even at his advanced age. Since making his comeback in 2014, Briggs has knocked out six of his eight opponents in the 1st round. He also has a 2nd round knockout in his comeback. Granted, Briggs’ opposition has been terrible, but the fact that he’s knocking them out in the 1st round tells you he can still punch after all these years.
Briggs’ power might not be quite as good as it was during his youth, and his stamina might not be that great either. However, he’s still very dangerous for Haye even if he’s only punching at 80% of what he was in his prime. Briggs at 80% would still be a very dangerous for the former cruiserweight champion Haye, who has only had a handful of fights in the last six years of his career.
Haye has arguably been a part time fighter since 2009. His fights have been infrequent for the most part in the last seven years of his career. Haye and Briggs are kind of in the same boat in terms of inactivity. Briggs was out of the ring for four years from 2010 to 2014. Haye was out of the ring for four years from 2012 to 2016. The only difference is Briggs is a little older at 44 compared to the 35-year-old Haye. It won’t be long before Haye is Briggs’ age. I’m just saying.
With Haye’s lip trembling when confronted by Briggs, I’m thinking that Haye might just fall apart mentally when he gets inside the ring with Briggs. Man, it’ll be bad to see Haye come unglued again like he did in his fight against Wladimir Klitschko. I just hope Haye doesn’t start squawking about having a toe problem afterwards when trying to explain away his loss. I think it would look bad if he brings up an injury, any injury in explaining why he lost to Briggs. I don’t think the fans would buy the excuses. They’d just see it as a case of Haye not being good enough to beat an old timer. 35 is pretty old too, and you can say that Haye is now an old timer himself.