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Will He or Won’t He?
 Click for larger image © Tom Casino Showtime Boxing |
I remember Shannon Briggs’ first loss. He was hammering Darroll Wilson for two rounds and it looked like he was on his way to an impressive KO win, but “The Cannon” ran out of gas and Wilson cleaned his clock. George Foreman was one of the commentators and said that losing would be the best thing to happen to Briggs as Shannon would come back as an even better fighter. |
That wouldn’t turn out to be true for several more years. Even though Briggs eventually got back on track and won a controversial decision against George Foreman in the ring, the New Yorker wasn’t ready to be amongst the heavyweight elite.
Before his fight against Lennox Lewis in 1998, I heard Briggs say in an interview how he beat the man who beat the man, who beat the man (translation: Briggs had beaten Foreman, who had beaten Michael Moorer, who had beaten Evander Holyfield) as if that circular logic meant something.
Briggs was so sure that he’d beat Lewis next, he said on the Howard Stern show that he’d walk in the studio naked if he lost. Of course, he didn’t win, and while he had the guts to come back to the Stern show, he wrangled out of fulfilling his end of the bet.
And then to further add to the downslide, he lost to Jameel McCline of all people. I saw a fat, sluggish Briggs against a monster-looking, but timid punching, McCline who, once he stopped being so tentative and respectful of Briggs, got in more hits than Motown in the 1960’s.
Can we now take Shannon Briggs at his word? In his 11 straight fights since facing McCline in 2002, Briggs hasn’t lost and has won all but one by early KO. But is that something that will work to his advantage against Sergei Lyakhovich this Saturday?
If Briggs had trouble with stamina before and hasn’t had a fight to go the distance since 2002, how is he going to deal with Lyakhovich if the WBO Champion is still around after the fourth? Especially considering that Briggs’ only opponent to last longer than four rounds in this streak was a 44 year old Ray Mercer? Add to that the fact that Briggs has gone the distance in a 12 round fight only once, and that was against George Foreman in 1997.
Not that Lyakhovich is a huge threat, at least on paper; he’s only had two fights that have gone an entire 12 rounds and has seven wins since his loss to Maurice Harris, 18-12-2, in 2003. Out of his nearly eight year pro career, Lyakhovich has only fought five opponents who have had an 80% or greater winning percentage prior to fighting him.
Some might say that Lyakhovich is the weaker link when you also factor in two things. One of those fighters with the greater than 80% win percentage was Dominick Guinn, who has struggled greatly as of late. Secondly, Sergei’s last fight was against Lamon Brewster, who fought one-eyed for nearly the entire fight but was still able to make Lyakhovich take a knee in the seventh.
When evaluating a fighter who has never lost, I always ask myself the question, “What does he do when everything he’s used to succeed in the past fails?” Does he collapse or does he persevere until he finds a way?
With both men having imperfections on their respective records, it seems that Briggs and Lyakhovich have both grown from those losses.
The two share one common opponent, but don’t put any stock in the fact that Lyakhovich defeated Sedreck “Big Buck” Fields, who beat Briggs in 2000, as Shannon has beaten much stiffer competition since then.
Another thing that they share is that both fighters have had stamina problems in previous fights; if Briggs can’t knock Lyakhovich out in four rounds, does he have something else?
If Lyakhovich encounters more power than he’s expecting, can he avoid taking a knee?
With the current state of the heavyweight division, we don’t need another crawl-to-the-finish-line fight. We don’t want to see someone lose; we want to see someone win.
