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Shannon The Cannon Briggs, Sept 5th
- Thread starter 315MMAFighter
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Brownsville Never Ran Never Will NY.
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Amazing the kind of shape Briggs can get into at 43. His legs may not be there anymore, but his hand speed was on point. Always great to see a fellow cat from Brownsville find success.
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Charles Farrell summed it up nicely early this year when he wrote about Briggs being the most fan friendly choice:
"Klitschko plays the part of the decent man pushed too far, and their inevitable encounter will be promoted as a grudge match. The Brooklyn-born Briggs, at 42, is at least a decade past being a genuine contender, but by far the most fan-friendly choice available, in terms of spectacle anyway, now that the champion has wiped out the rest of the division.
As improbable as it is for a dominant heavyweight champion who's still at his best to take on a quasi-professional boxer who's had no meaningful wins since his knockout of a shopworn Ray Mercer in 2005, there are good business reasons for this matchup to take place. In a sport where the highest profile bad guys are Floyd Mayweather, a wealthy bore with nothing to say, and Adrian Broner, a vulgar loudmouth who people don't like not because he cultivates a negative persona but because he really is an asshole, Shannon Briggs, given a stage, projects a charismatic cartoon heel. He's got the thing down pat. Ripped to shreds and juiced near to bursting, all he needs is a talented foil to work off. Wladimir Klitschko, meanwhile, has so far done a good job of acting the often bemused and occasionally outraged baby face. Once they arrive in Brooklyn, they'll probably do a mutual turn, letting Shannon become the hometown hero to Wladimir's invading outsider.
Klitschko is deeply invested in finishing up his career by building an audience in the United States, where boxing fans have, until now, been at best lukewarm to him. He understands that Briggs will do more than his part to hype the fight and ensure a sold out Barclays Center.
It's evident that the various staged confrontations between Klitschko and Briggs are amusing to them and that they genuinely get a kick out of each other. It's possible that Wladimir feels some sense of responsibility for the inhuman beating Shannon took over 12 rounds when he fought his brother Vitali a little over four years ago. It's the kind of sustained damage with will surely tell on Briggs somewhere down the line, and something that the referee, the commission doctor, and Briggs's corner men should all be ashamed of allowing to happen. It's easy to imagine Klitschko thinking that, since Briggs did a lot of suffering for very little money, it'd be nice to put the karma right by reversing the ratio.
Shannon Briggs doesn't train to go rounds; Wladimir Klitschko needs a splashy return to the States after an absence of over seven years (and a particularly dull win over Sultan Ibragamov on that occasion). That means this is going to be a short, explosive night."
"Klitschko plays the part of the decent man pushed too far, and their inevitable encounter will be promoted as a grudge match. The Brooklyn-born Briggs, at 42, is at least a decade past being a genuine contender, but by far the most fan-friendly choice available, in terms of spectacle anyway, now that the champion has wiped out the rest of the division.
As improbable as it is for a dominant heavyweight champion who's still at his best to take on a quasi-professional boxer who's had no meaningful wins since his knockout of a shopworn Ray Mercer in 2005, there are good business reasons for this matchup to take place. In a sport where the highest profile bad guys are Floyd Mayweather, a wealthy bore with nothing to say, and Adrian Broner, a vulgar loudmouth who people don't like not because he cultivates a negative persona but because he really is an asshole, Shannon Briggs, given a stage, projects a charismatic cartoon heel. He's got the thing down pat. Ripped to shreds and juiced near to bursting, all he needs is a talented foil to work off. Wladimir Klitschko, meanwhile, has so far done a good job of acting the often bemused and occasionally outraged baby face. Once they arrive in Brooklyn, they'll probably do a mutual turn, letting Shannon become the hometown hero to Wladimir's invading outsider.
Klitschko is deeply invested in finishing up his career by building an audience in the United States, where boxing fans have, until now, been at best lukewarm to him. He understands that Briggs will do more than his part to hype the fight and ensure a sold out Barclays Center.
It's evident that the various staged confrontations between Klitschko and Briggs are amusing to them and that they genuinely get a kick out of each other. It's possible that Wladimir feels some sense of responsibility for the inhuman beating Shannon took over 12 rounds when he fought his brother Vitali a little over four years ago. It's the kind of sustained damage with will surely tell on Briggs somewhere down the line, and something that the referee, the commission doctor, and Briggs's corner men should all be ashamed of allowing to happen. It's easy to imagine Klitschko thinking that, since Briggs did a lot of suffering for very little money, it'd be nice to put the karma right by reversing the ratio.
Shannon Briggs doesn't train to go rounds; Wladimir Klitschko needs a splashy return to the States after an absence of over seven years (and a particularly dull win over Sultan Ibragamov on that occasion). That means this is going to be a short, explosive night."
