By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight belt holder Shannon ‘The Cannon’ Briggs says he’s facing Tyson Fury this April. Speaking to TMZ, Briggs told them that he’s been in talks with Fury for some time about a fight between them. Briggs says the fight with Fury will be happening in April, and he’s already predicting a 1st round knockout of the 6’9” inactive fighter.
It’s hard to believe Briggs. He did speak with TMZ, as the video below shows, but it’s just Briggs speaking, not Fury. If the fight is in the works, you can bet that Fury would be opening his yap about it and blabbering like crazy. There’s no official word from Fury and his management about a fight against the 46-year-old Briggs. Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) is expected to be back inside the ring in April if he received his license to fight from the British Boxing Board of Control when he meets with them in January. It’s not a certainty that Fury will get his license back. He expects to get it back, but there’s still a chance that he might not get his license. For that reason it seems premature for Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs) to be talking up a fight against Fury in April.
“I feel like the fight is going to happen next year we’ve been talking for some time now,” said Briggs to TMZ. “It’s going to be a great fight, he’s been off for two to three years now, I’ve been off for over a year, I’m going to beat his [expletive],” said Briggs.
If it turns out to be true that Briggs and Fury will be facing each other in April, then it’s great news. It’ll be a good fight for the boxing world. Fury will make more fighting a well-known fighter like Briggs than he would in facing an obscure 2nd or 3rd tier journeyman in his comeback fight in April. It’ll be a less risky fight for Fury to fight Briggs than it would be for him to face a runner like Tony Bellew, who could spoil his way to a victory over him the way WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders spoiled his way to a win over David Lemieux recently.
Briggs is predicting a 1st round knockout over Fury, saying that he’ll ”bum rush” him if he fights defensively. That’s actually a great strategy in how to beat Fury if he decides to fight in a defensive posture all night long like he did against Wladimir Klitschko in his last fight in November 2015. Wladimir should bum rushed Fury and teed off on him with right hands and left hooks to the head at close range. Wladimir didn’t attack Fury the way he needed to in order to get the win. It’s too bad Briggs wasn’t working Wladimir’s corner on the night, because he might have shaken some sense into him by motivating him to go after the Fury instead of letting him spoil all night long.
“Rhythm, he’s a rhythm fighter – I’m a rhythm fighter we’re going to take it to the middle of the ring,” said Briggs. “If he tries to box me I’m going to bum-rush him, if he tries to slug with me I’m going to wear him down – I’m going to knock him out, this is the heavyweight championship fight.”
So, there it is. Briggs is going to “bum rush” Fury and knock him out. I was saying the same thing when Wladimir fought Fury. He needed to attack him and swing for the fences. Even if Wladimir had missed with his big power shots, he could have nailed Fury with a right hand or left hook at point blank range. Wladimir looked like he was afraid to get counted by Fury, so he chose not to let his hands go. That’s the wrong thing to do. WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder isn’t afraid to miss with his right hands. When Wilder misses with one of his long right hand power shots, he reloads and fires off another shot in close. Wilder doesn’t hold off on his punches for fear that he might miss.
Brigg is an advanced fighter for someone like Fury to be facing after 2 years out of the ring. Of course, Briggs hasn’t fought in 2 years, so he’ll be just as ring rusty as Fury. The big difference is Briggs didn’t let his body go to pot by ballooning up to 400 pounds by living it up, eating whatever he pleased for 2 solid years. Briggs has been taking care of himself, keeping his weight under control. Briggs obviously knows his body is how he makes a living in the sport, so he wasn’t going to eat like a pig and swell up to the point where he would need to make a super human effort to lose all the lard that he put on.
The positive for Fury taking on Briggs for his next fight is the big money the fight will make for him. Briggs will do most of the work for him by building the fight up by giving countless interviews with the media. Briggs is a natural showman, and he has a gift for attracting attention to his fights. The problem that Briggs has had is he hasn’t been involved in a big fight since his loss to former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2010. Briggs has been facing 3rd tier opposition since he started his comeback in 2014. Briggs was trying to get a fight with David Haye in 2016, but he couldn’t get him to agree to a fight. In hindsight, Haye should have taken the fight with Briggs for the easy payday before facing Tony Bellew. Had Haye done that, he would have had 2 nice paydays in 2016 instead of the 2 mismatches against Arnold Gjergjai and Mark de Mori.
“He got heart and he ain’t scared of me,” said Briggs about Fury. “He’s like you know what, this is a great fight, he realizes that this is a great fight for England – a great fight as he’ll be seen by the Americans,” said Briggs.
Briggs is really pouring it on thick, isn’t he? Does Briggs have the fight with Fury in the bag or doesn’t he? If he does, then there’s no point in Briggs slathering the compliments on Fury like that. The fight isn’t going to disappear on Briggs if it’s really set the way he says it is. Of course, if the fight is just a pipe dream on Briggs’ part, then I guess he’s doing the right thing in giving Fury so much love the way he is.
Fury would be at high risk if he were to fight Briggs, who can still punch from what we saw from him in his 1st round knockout last year of Emilio Zarate on May 21. Briggs can no longer land head shots with any degree of accuracy, but he can throw to the body with major power. Briggs doesn’t even try and throw head shots any longer. His accuracy and timing appear to be shot at this point in his career. But what Briggs can do is throw body shots. Fury fought anyone other than Big John McDermott that has targeted his midsection during his pro career. If Briggs can hit Fury with enough body shots to the bread basket, he may break him down and knock him out. The 2 years of soft living will catch up to Fury if he takes on Briggs and he starts getting hit with his sledgehammer body shots.
