Klitschko-Briggs: One of these Titans is going down on October 16th

By Boxing News - 09/08/2010 - Comments

Image: Klitschko-Briggs: One of these Titans is going down on October 16thBy Matt Stein: World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) has only tasted defeat on two separate occasions during his long 14-year pro career and has been stopped on both of the occasions in his defeats. Klitschko’s next opponent, 38-year-old Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s), has only been beaten five times in his 18-year pro career and has been stopped by two of his opponents – Lennox Lewis and Darroll Wilson.

Both Klitschko and Briggs possess knockout power in either hand, but Briggs seems to be on another level in terms of hand speed and power compared to the now 39-year-old Klitschko. But Briggs doesn’t have quite as long reach and doesn’t have the same wind power to fight hard for 12 rounds without visibly tiring. As such, you can expect for Briggs to be looking to use up his fireworks early in his fight against Klitschko because Briggs has got to know that unless he can get to Klitschko early in the fight with one of his big left hooks or right hands, the chances are high that Vitali will still be around late in the fight and will bludgeon him into submission with an accumulation of blows.

That’s generally how both the Klitschko brothers get their wins. They don’t go looking to stop their opponents early in their fights, because they don’t like to get hit and take unnecessary risks. Instead, both of the Klitschko brothers like to play it safe, bide their time and then go after a knockout late in the fight when their opponents are softened up from eating jabs, right hands and left hooks. Briggs probably has little chance of finishing this fight on his feet if he doesn’t get to Vitali early with his power shots. He can’t afford to take a slow approach to the fight with Vitali, because that’s exactly what the Ukrainian wants him to do.

Klitschko obviously knows that Briggs, with all those useless muscle that he’s carrying around on his upper body, will tire out in the 2nd half of the fight. This is why Vitali won’t bother doing much in the first six rounds other than to jab and spear Briggs with short arm punches. There won’t be a lot of power on Vitali’s shots because he won’t want to take the chance of loading up and getting hit with one of Briggs’ power shots in return. Briggs throws with enough power and speed to knock Vitali cold if he goes at him hard in the first three rounds, and this is what Briggs needs to do.

Briggs can’t afford to let Vitali pound away at him with his methodical attack for 12 rounds and slowly rearrange Brigg’s features. Briggs has got to see it as an all or nothing charge early in the fight and turn it into a Custer’s land stand for either Vitali or himself. It’s better to go down swinging than to let Vitali turn him into mincemeat over 12 rounds.



Comments are closed.