Shannon Briggs: The Train Went Five Years Ago

By Janne Romppainen

29.08 - You know what type of fighters annoy me the most? It is the fighters who brag themselves and think themselves that they have something to back it up. I am not annoyed by guys such as Ricardo Mayorga, who talks a lot of trash but is able also to back it up in the ring, that kind of characters are only good for the sport. Even making clearly empty boasts, such as Butterbean telling us he could knock out Mike Tyson doesn’t annoy me, it is more fun than irritating. But the ones who behave like Shannon Briggs in the recent years, they are the ones who get on my nerves.

As most boxing fans well remember, Shannon Briggs challenged Lennox Lewis for his WBC heavyweight title back in 1998. And as we know, he did well even though he couldn’t win the title. He wobbled Lewis in the first round and fought gamely until the end, which came in the fifth round after Lewis had decked him three times. Now this was a good performance but does it give Briggs a reason to claim that Lewis is reluctant to fight him again or to claim that he should be the one fighting the best of the division? Definitely not. The fight was exciting all right, but there was no dispute about which man was the better that night. Yet again yesterday, when Briggs came back after a year lay-off to defeat over-matched Wade Lewis, he called out Mike Tyson. It makes me wonder whose challenge has more credibility, his or Butterbean’s.

Shannon Briggs is not a bad fighter by any means. Actually, about seven years ago he was seen as the next big thing of the heavyweights. And physically he seemed to have everything needed for it. He stood at 6’4 and he weighed over 220lbs without and ounce of surplus fat. He had very fast hands for a heavyweight and he packed a good punch. Briggs looked mightily impressive as he roared through the usual early opponents. First and foremost, already then he had his mouth that made noise for him along with his fists.

As it turned out, Briggs was like many other once-big prospects. A comparison could be made between him and Michael Grant for example: both were big, strong, impressive looking and marketable. However, when their real professional skill and defence were tested, they both failed miserably. For Grant, it took Lennox Lewis to show his vulnerability. For Briggs, it took merely Darrol Wilson. Back in 1996, Briggs was the header of the “night of the young guns” –card. In the same show, David Tua knocked out John Ruiz and Andrew Golota made a name for himself by beating Danell Nicholson. Shannon Briggs was supposed to be the star of the night but instead, all he saw was stars. Darrol Wilson stole the show by blasting out the hyped prospect easily in three rounds.

But one bad loss doesn’t need to mean the end of the line and it wasn’t that for Briggs either. He came back with some warm-up victories to challenge George Foreman for his lineal heavyweight championship. This time Briggs made a lot less noise than usually and after the fight, he was very quiet indeed. After twelve rounds of hard fighting, nearly every onlooker thought that Big George had outpointed his younger foe who again showed big lapses in his defence. The judges saw it differently however and Briggs escaped with a majority decision, which secured him a chance to fight Lewis for the title.

As said earlier, Briggs did quite well, at least much better than expected. He was very close to winning the fight via first-round knockout, wobbled Lewis again in the second and even after the tide took a turn for the worse for him, he never gave up trying. In this fight, he earned some respect.

After this battle however, Briggs’ mouth hasn’t closed, but he hasn’t achieved much of anything since then. In 1999, he was taken to a draw by the veteran fighter Francois Botha and most of viewers thought that Botha had earned the decision. In 2000, Briggs was outpointed by a journeyman, if a dangerous one, called Sedrick Fields. In 2001, he came back with four first-round knockouts over typical cannon-fodders. In 2002, he was soundly outpointed by Jameel McCline and now he was weighing over 20lbs more than in his prime. Now he is making another comeback.

Now don’t get me wrong, even though Briggs’ attitude gets on my nerves I still have some respect for him. He has fought some world-class opponents and even though he has been taking heavy beatings at times, he has never given up. That counts for something. But he should know himself that the reputation he earned five years ago is not enough to give him a right to demand for title fights. To do that, he should actually beat even some opponents from the top-50 of the division. Knocking out the likes of Wade Lewis is not enough.

Briggs is a colourful character and he still could give us some exciting moments in the future. Now, he should just keep his mouth shut for a while and concentrate on his job. Making those empty boasts without backing anything up will only make him look more silly, which would be a shame for a talented athlete like him.

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