By Mark Vester

WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs has pulled out of his mandatory March 10 defense of the title against Sultan Ibragimov due to a form of pneumonia. The bout was scheduled to take place at the Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden, and televised live by HBO.

Briggs told boxing scribe  Dan Rafael that he is heartbroken for having to postpone the fight because Ibragimov would have been as easy payday.

"I'm not doing too good," Briggs. "To me, this was almost $2 million. I'm sick about it. I'm destroyed over this. It was an easy payday for me. Hopefully, we can push it back to May or June and I will be better."

He wasn't too happy with the selection of Ibragimov as the opponent, but millions of dollars were on the table. After being diagnosed with pneumonia, he was still willing to move forward with the fight.  Regardless of his personal feelings on Ibragimov, he knew that it would be a much smarter choice to postpone the fight and make the first defense of the title at 100%.

"We contemplated fighting. I wanted to fight," said Briggs. "To me this fight was a joke. How did he even become my mandatory? Off a draw with Ray Austin? OK, but it was an easy payday. But we came to the realization that it wasn't the smartest thing to do. Me losing to Ibragimov because of illness, people don't want to hear about that."