Shannon Briggs, American Heavyweight Champ?

I think Shannon Briggs is a man on a mission, and is motivated by the weakness of the American heavyweights, and how the Russians are dominating.

You also left out other American prospects:Deontay Wilder, David Rodriguez, and Tor Hamer.

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Briggs has always had very good hand-speed for a heavyweight - I think the things that held him back even when he was really an exeptional talent will still exist. Those are his conditioning and chin.

He is even older now, so those explosive combinations he uses to overwhelm plodding guys in the early rounds will sap even more from him if he doesn't get the KO.

He does have a lot of big fight experience (relative to the majority of heavyweights) so he may be able to make adjustments as far as using his fast hands and experience to give some guys problems. But right now, there are only 3 heavyweights of note, Wlad, Vitaili and Haye (Adamek could be knocking too) and I don't think Briggs has much of a chance (outside of a early round KO) of beating any of those 3.

The best American Heavyweight prospect is Tavoris Cloud in my opinion.

As for Briggs, he will probably beat a few guys like the caliber he is fighting. He might even beat a contender. However, it is doubtful he could beat Haye, so it is near impossible he could beat Vitali or Wladimir.

But I will say that I WOULD NOT be surprised if Briggs fights Wladimir and Briggs wins by KO. It is a great possibility. Lamon Brewster, Corrie Sanders and Ross Puritty aren't near as powerful as Briggs. No matter what people say, Wladimir has a weak chin and Briggs has a lot of power. The LIKELY outcome if they fought is Klitschko to win by TKO or UD, but Briggs has a realistic punchers chance.

i have been rooting for shannon briggs to take over the heavyweight division for YEARS! always was a fan and always liked watching him fight. but i gave up on his lazy azz because its clear that he doesnt care and doesnt want to fight anymore. its always the same scenario: he gets a couple of fights against bums, knocks them out, and proclaims he's "back!" then, he disappears! he CONSTANTLY btichez-n-complains and make excuses: "my asthma....i had pneumonia....lou dibella held me back....no one will give me a chance.... no one likes that i'm outspoken and it's hurt my career.....screw boxing, i'm going to mma!" blah, blah, blah. he has backed out of more fights than i can count, and has had more self-proclaimed "comebacks" than any fighter in recent memory. that is not the behaviour of a boxer who wants to fight, let alone take over the division! people should realize, just as i have, that shannon is a b.s. artist.

if shannon REALLY wanted to take over the division, he would do what tomaz adamek is doing right now: fighting stiff competition every few months and winning. tomaz is clearly preparing himself for an eventual showdown with a klitschko. and that to me is what a heavyweight (or any fighter for that matter) is SUPPOSED to do: work hard and prepare yourself to fight for a world title. not btichez-n-complains all the time, year after friggin' year like shannon briggs does.

Personally, I think Briggs' comeback is a waste of his time. I think the Klitschkos and Haye would out work Briggs at this point in his career. I can't see Briggs getting pass the jabs of either Klitschko brother.

I really can't see Shannon Briggs doing anything significant with his comeback although Briggs has shocked me before, so who's to say that he can't do it again? I would have never thought that he would knock out Sergei Liakhovich at the last second to win a world title back in 2006, especially since Liakhovich was coming off an excellent victory over Lamon Brewster (who had knocked out Wladimir Klitschko to win that version of the title previously).

Briggs has good power and unlike most heavyweights, he's a good body puncher but he gives up his height way too easily, he loses his focus as well as his energy over distance fights, he doesn't use his reach to his advantage, he's not a good combination puncher since his hand speed is sub par, he doesn't have a good chin, he doesn't have great movement and he has virtually no stamina (which he blames on his asthma)- all of these things are the reason why he lost his title in lopsided fashion to Sultan Ibragimov back in 2007 and Ibragimov was really nothing special (he fought to a draw with Ray Austin, I think that pretty much says it all).

I can't see Briggs being a serious threat to either the Klitschko brothers or David Haye, especially now that he's 38 years old- Briggs does have great knockout power that can knock anyone out at any part of a fight but I just don't think that his power will be enough to overcome his deficiencies when he's facing the best heavyweights in the world. Against the Klitschko brothers, he'd have to be able to get inside of their long reach and since he doesn't do so well against tall opponents (was knocked out by Lennox Lewis and was dominated by Jameel McCline), I'm inclined to believe that he would be little more than a punching bag for a few rounds against the Klitschkos before getting stopped sometime in the mid rounds: against Wladimir, he'd have a better shot because he may be able to catch Wlad with a lucky punch but once again, he'd have to get within range to land it and he probably can't do that with Wlad constantly sticking a jab in his face. I mean, Briggs couldn't even get inside a much shorter opponent's reach when he fought Ibragimov, so I have no doubt that he wouldn't be able to get on the inside of a much taller opponent's reach such as the Klitschkos. Against Haye, I think Briggs would get outworked and would be stopped in the later rounds- Briggs never really settles into a groove in any of his fights, instead it always looks as if he's looking for that one perfectly placed shot to knock his opponent out and against a very active and powerful fighter like Haye, I think Briggs would pay dearly and probably take a beating in the process of getting outworked.

I guarantee you that as soon as Briggs loses during his comeback, he will blame it on his asthma- I remember after he lost his title to Ibragimov, he actually said that he was one of the best fighters of all time because he won a title with asthma, he said something like "With all respect to Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, they didn't have to fight with a breathing disease like I did", it made me laugh more than anything and I couldn't believe that he was serious. Briggs deserves credit for overcoming his asthma but his asthma doesn't excuse his bad losses and it certainly does not make him one of the best of all time. Anything is possible in boxing but I can't see Briggs doing anything real significant with his comeback- maybe he'll beat someone on the fringes of the top 10 but that's pretty much it, at least from what I can see.

Shannon Briggs is past his prime, if you don't make the first time around it is certainly much harder the second time around. He is not good enough to fight for the heavyweight championship.

You said : " Okay so we know the Heavyweight division is garbage right now"

Ok name one prime worthy fighter that Larry Holmes had to fight with in 1980-1985 era and name one prime heavyweight fighter Mike Tyson had to fight with in 1986-1990 era,thug out

i Agree