Former two-time heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs announced this week how he has signed a deal with BKFC; Briggs being the latest big name boxer to go into the bare-knuckle ring.
“Hook. Right. Goodnight. We do ribs right at Chizzy’s Rib Shack. We tenderize and then capitalize off the fact that they wounded and are prey. Yeah!! I’ll be fighting bare knuckle when the coast is clear….Who do you want to see me fight in a bare knuckle fight? I mean, who you wanna see lose teeth? Let’s go champ,” Briggs put out on social media.
Following Paulie Malignaggi and others, Briggs has for a while expressed a real desire to try and fight without gloves. Now 48 years of age and inactive since his May 2016 blow-out of Emilio Zarate, Briggs, 60-6-1(53) may or may not prove to be a hit at bare-knuckle fighting. But, as Malignaggi found out in his quite punishing fight with Artem Lobov, it’s not all about skill in bare-knuckle, more so sheer toughness (a bare-knuckle fighter can expect to swell up around the face, bleed and suffer broken facial bones if the fight lasts more than a couple of rounds – to say nothing of suffering injured hands). Malignaggi is far superior to Lobov in terms of boxing skill, but who won the fight?
Briggs has to his advantage his big punch, his ability to end a fight quickly, inside a round. But if Briggs gets in there in a bare-knuckle bout and doesn’t end matters fast, he will likely run the risk of being busted up and of running out of gas, as has always been Briggs’ problem, even when he was a much younger man.
Briggs could possibly add some additional X-factor value to a sport that already has a big X-factor all of its own. Who knows if Briggs is in need of money, is simply bored and is unable to get himself any boxing matches, or if he simply cannot rid himself of the urge to fight.
Briggs asks us who we want to see him fight in bare-knuckle, so how about it – who do you want to see “The Cannon” go to war with?