By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs hasn’t given up on trying to get a fight against Britain’s David Haye despite the fact that he appears to be showing little interest in wanting to share the ring with him. Briggs has taken to social media to vent about Haye not giving him a fight after he agreed to fight on his undercard last May against Emilio Ezequiel Zarate at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Briggs, 44, thought he would get a fight against the 35-year-old Haye if he fought on his undercard, but it doesn’t appear that he’ll be getting the fight.
Briggs put together a hilarious Instagram post on Saturday from the movie The Warriors where he’s calling out a terrified looking Haye. From looking at the post, it appears Haye wants no part of mixing it up with Briggs. It’s funny stuff.
World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza said this past week that Haye will have the option to fight for his WBA heavyweight title against the winner of the Fres Oquendo vs. Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne fight either in 2016 or 2017.
What’s hard to understand is why Mendoza didn’t mention interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz, as he’s the most logical guy that should be fighting the winner of the Browne-Oquendo fight, not Haye. Ortiz has been fighting on a regular basis and didn’t just come back from the sport after being out of it four years like Haye did.
Ortiz has wins over Tony Thompson and Bryant Jennings in his last two fights. I hate to say it but those guys are much better than the guys Haye has fought recently with his wins over Arnold Gjergjaj and Mark De Mori. I don’t know where on earth Haye found those guys, but they sure as heck aren’t very good in comparison to the fighters that Ortiz has fought.
You would think that Haye has got to fight somebody before he gets a title shot in early 2017. I mean, it’ll look bad if Haye chooses to do nothing until he’s given the title shot by WBA president Mendoza. That would be the epitome of playing it safe on Haye’s part if he’s just going to sit back and passively wait for the title shot to be given to him by Mendoza.
“We would love to have David Haye back as our champion,” said Mendoza to skysports.com. “David Haye would receive a title opportunity. I don’t know if in 2016, but perhaps at the beginning of next year.”
Haye is ranked #5 by the WBA behind #1 Luis Ortiz, #2 Wladimir Klitschko, #3 Alexander Ustinov and #4 Fred Oquendo.