By Rick Reeno

It seemed like it was taking forever for Antonio Tarver to get an opponent lined up for his post Roy Jones career.  I was starting to think this guy will never fight someone other then Roy Jones. We finally get our wish to see Tarver back in the ring. At the recent WBC convention, Don King won with a purse bid of $2.7 million for the rights to stage the fight between Australian Paul Briggs and WBC light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver.

The fight must be held within the next 90 days or Tarver will be stripped of his title. The rumored date is December 18th, 2004. Antonio has already stated that he looks forward to meeting Paul Briggs and thinks the fight will have good action. Both men will get 7 figure paydays from the future metting. Briggs should provide a very good test for Tarver.

Briggs has mostly fought in Australia against fighters who are unknown to the general boxing public. Briggs has good boxing skills, speed and power in both hands. He began his pro career decision win at the middleweight level of 160, he would not have his second pro fight until nearly three years later when he came back at the light heavyweight limit of 175. Briggs was knocked out in three rounds in his first light heavyweight bout and did not fight again for nearly three more years.

Briggs came back for his third pro fight at the cruiserweight limit of 190. Briggs got a   KO win at cruiser, moved back down to 175 and has never looked back. He has not lost a bout since his second pro fight back in 1997. Briggs has been very active, averaging at least 3-6 fights per year since 2000. He is very deadly with both hands, knocking out opponents with both his left and right. Briggs has stopped 17 of his 24 opponents. The ace in the hole may be that the trainer of Briggs is none other then Jack Mosley, the father of Shane. Briggs has also done plenty of sparring with the always tough Danny Green.

Jack Mosley stated that he felt Briggs was one of best fighters he had ever worked with and predicted several months ago that if Briggs was given the chance, he could defeat the top guys at 175 pounds.

Good to see that Antonio is stepping to the plate to take on a very dangerous opponent in Paul Briggs, it should be a great fight.