Briggs Shows Off at Kushner’s Premier

25.05.06 – By Troy Ondrizek @ringside: “The Premier” was Cedric Kushner’s latest foray into New York boxing, and it came off with mixed results. The event was a little disorganized as it started roughly an hour late. Next issue was the inability to retrieve some of our press credentials, but the issue was eventually handled. Once past those two little hurdles, the fighters came along. I will say this about the card; it was possibly the most competitive fight card I have ever seen.. There were no blowouts or poor performances until Chris Koval stepped into the ring. Unfortunately there was only about half capacity at the Hammerstein Ballroom, which I might add makes a great venue for boxing; I was skeptical, but I walked the entire premises and found barely a bad seat. For the thousand or so individuals that showed up to the fights, they were treated to six great contests.

I eventually found a suitable seat and enjoyed the entertainment of the night. I must apologize first before I go into detail about the fights, I was going to provide pictures, but I got this new digital camera and took the time to learn how everything worked and the perfect tints, but we or more accurately I, had a user error. It wasn’t really anything mechanical, I apparently over-estimated the amount of life left in my old battery, and when it came time to document the fights visually; my new toy had no juice.

The first interesting affair was a 6 round heavyweight bout between Ronald Ray and Tony Grano. Ray sported a 3-3 record with 3 KO’s, and Grano was the favorite with a 4-0 record and 4 KO’s. To be honest I was very impressed with Grano. Ray had an enormous reach advantage over him, but failed to realize it. Grano bobbed and weaved inside of the lanky Ray’s punches and would work the body and then move out. Grano had very nice footwork and body mechanics. I was shocked to see such refined skills from such a young fighter.

Now Grano had his flaws, he didn’t always use his jab to get inside of Ray, and the bigger man was able to time Tony’s head movement and periodically caught the smaller Grano coming in. Grano didn’t always throw combos and started to headhunt a little too early, but he did hurt the awkward Ray. I had the fight 59-56 for Grano, and when the scorecards came out and read 57-57 across the board, I couldn’t help but feel that I was in Germany, but the loud New York accented boos and profanity that broke my concentration reminded me that I was back home, it was just poor judging. It was a shame that that Tony was subjected to this type of judging, but welcome to boxing young man, better Grano realizes this type of disappointment sooner than later.

J.D. Chapman and Edward Gutierrez was the first televised event. Chapman had already defeated Gutierrez back in December with an unimpressive UD performance. Chapman came out under the tutelage of Jeff Mayweather for the first time of his career. Mayweather is also Shannon Briggs’ trainer and I talked to J.D.’s manager (Scott Hirsch) on how the latest trainer change has affected J.D., and Hirsch stated that Chapman has taken to Mayweather better than Briggs has. Chapman looked a lot better in this fight than he did on ESPN a few weeks back against Matt Hicks, and his stamina was much better. You could see some of the subtle and not so subtle changes that Mayweather has made. One thing that Mayweather hasn’t done is let J.D. loose on his opponents.

Now this was the least entertaining affair on the bill. The fight consisted of Chapman punching the hell out of Gutierrez’s arms, and the incredibly awkward Gutierrez lunging up at the much larger Chapman. J.D.’s corner kept yelling “more distance” not wanting their fighter to let the little Gutierrez who lacks a jab, on the inside. Chapman just couldn’t land clean, and rarely used his right hand. It was jab, jab, hold, and an occasional counter hook from Gutierrez. Chapman just didn’t seem to want the fight. J.D. has seemingly loss the fire and heart that made him exciting to watch. With the lackluster effort of Chapman, this fight too went to the cards. I had the affair 96-94 Chapman, based on J.D.’s ability to stay busy and instigating the fight.

The scorecards rang out 97-93 twice and 96-94, all for Chapman. You could see the anxiety on the faces of Chapman and his corner, and when the final verdict was announced, expressions of relief came from his team and they were accompanied by boos from the crowd. This time the judges had it right, I would like to inform some fans that if you throw one maybe two punches a round doesn’t mean you win the round, and no a head-butt is not a punch. Evander Holyfield will argue that one with me; and Chapman won’t be able to fight in three weeks against the pudgy pounder George Garcia because Gutierrez used his head to split Chapman’s.

When I looked at the fight card and saw Matt Vanda and his 34-1 record being pitted against 11-12-1 Martinus Clay, I thought what horrible match-making, and how the hell did this get by the commission. Clay, who I thought was overmatched, didn’t share the same opinion. This turned out to be the fight of the night. Both men came out firing and connected to one another’s head with startling regularity. Vanda landed the harder shots early, but Clay’s ability to counter and his speed made up for the weaker punches. It seemed that every time I turned to talk to Laz Izada, something spectacular was caused by the hands of the combatants.

As the crowd got more into the fight, so did the fighters. Neither men backed down from the other in any round, and were content to just stand in front of another and trade vicious blows. The deciding factor for me in this bout was Clay’s ability to make Vanda miss from time to time and he was able to punch from varying angles. Both men earned standing ovations as the only way to stop them from fighting was to limit the amount of rounds. I had the fight 79-75 for Martinus Clay, as the first scorecard read 77-77 both corners showed their disappointment; the next two cards read 79-73 for Martinus Clay. All I could think was wow, what an upset, and wow I mocked Clay for his nickname of “Magnificent”; I thought how could someone with a record of 11-12-1 could under good conscious call themselves magnificent was beyond me, but I will say that at moments Clay looked the part.

Then finally Shannon Briggs entered the ring. Shannon weighed in at 273 lbs, easily the heaviest of his career. I addressed this issue as well with Scott Hirsch who manages Briggs along side of Chapman, and Scott basically said that he wished he knew. According to Hirsch, Briggs has given up his plyometric training from earlier this year and has just focused on lifting weights. Well Briggs is HUGE, and I’m not talking fat. Shannon has never been so muscular, sure he wasn’t shredded like he was when he was younger, but more than adequate definition donned his over-sized muscles. From the looks of him, I would almost bet that Shannon can’t clap because his biceps are too big. I think a little less muscle would do well for him and would help his stamina.

On the complete opposite end of the physical spectrum lies Chris “Special K” Koval. First off, Chris at 266lbs and most of it gut, looked like he needed to go on a special K diet. Secondly, who the hell names themselves after a cereal? Imagine me introducing myself as Troy “Honey Bunches of Oats” Ondrizek, I mean seriously, this isn’t the best career decision for Koval, and neither was facing Briggs in the ring. Koval once in the ring was a complete idiot. All Chris did was run his mouth off at Briggs. Every time Briggs hit him, which was every time Shannon threw a punch, Koval would try to mock him and talk trash. Now if you are trying to get into your opponent’s head, that’s great, but maybe offer up a counter attack or dodge some punches.

Even when Koval did land some shots, he ran his mouth and all Shannon did in response was punch him. Briggs seemed cool, calm, and confident in the ring. When Koval would throw the haymakers, Briggs rolled his shoulders and countered. Briggs didn’t get upset about the trash-talking, and went to the body well. Briggs’ jab was fast and on target. I will give Koval some props for actually having a chin. At one point in the second round Koval took a nice left-right from Briggs and dropped his hands so he could mock Shannon, as Koval dropped his hands, Briggs hit him with a jab, right hook, left hook combination that would’ve sent dozens of men into something reminiscent of 2001 A Space Odyssey. In the third round Koval crossed the line of professionalism when he actually spit at Briggs.

Shannon promptly smashed a right into Koval’s face, and Koval was forced to take a knee after he wobbled around a bit. As soon as Chris was up, Shannon calmly swooped in like the grim reaper to end the fight, another left hook sent Koval to the canvas. Chris made it up on the count of 9.9, and when the referee asked him if he was in any state to continue, Koval’s response was “I’m in Ohio”. The bell soon rang and Koval did the drunken dance towards his corner, and the doctor greeted him there to inform him that the fight was over.

Another TKO victory for Shannon, his 11th straight, and another worthless trinket belt for the former linear champ. In all my conversation with Hirsch, we discussed Shannon’s future, and without revealing too much, the course is something like this. The superfighter tournament is a low-likely maybe, it depends on outside forces, and Germany is in the near future. HBO executives were on hand at the press conference and ringside for this affair.

I was able to sit and talk to Chapman about his lackluster performance, and he is frustrated about all the changes at the trainer position. J.D. knows he needs to let his hands go more, and that he doesn’t throw with as much authority. J.D. is over-analyzing every punch, and he knows that it needs to be more natural for him to be offensive. Chapman does feel that Mayweather can instill in him the instincts he needs to be a natural fighter, and how to relax and be able to utilize his abilities.

As far as Shannon and Mayweather, Shannon came out working off the jab. Shannon wasn’t near as aggressive and threw less hooks and more crosses. Shannon worked the body when the head wasn’t available, and something I have never seen Shannon do is effectively counter. Koval was the perfect opponent for Briggs to try his newly found boxing prowess on. Sure Koval can’t really box, but he is a poor man’s Samuel Peter if one actually exists.

Koval can take immense punishment so Shannon wouldn’t get a first round KO, and still throws hard enough for Shannon to remember to use defense. Briggs looks the part of a champion, but that has been against average competition. Top fighters can say that Shannon is just fattening his record against no-hopers and has-beens, but those same fighters won’t step in the ring with Briggs unless their adequately compensated and that their insurance is extensive. Tonight was a success for Briggs, Kushner, and boxing. See you at the fights.