By Bill Calogero

This Saturday’s Heavyweight Title Fight, which will be broadcast live from Phoenix Arizona on ShowTime Championship Boxing, for the WBO Heavyweight Championship between current title holder Sergei Lyakhovich and challenger WBO #3 Ranked Shannon Briggs is a true representation of the World Boxing Organization.

Although I feel that the current state of the Heavyweight Division is poor across the board (WBC, WBA, IBF & WBO), the World Boxing Organization may be the most accurate of the top four sanctioning bodies. Excluding the Heavyweights, the other top-ranked fighters in the WBO are an exciting bunch. The top-ten ranked WBO Light-Heavyweights, as well as the Middleweights and Welterweights are all talented guys.

Don’t forget about the Lightweights either. Their Heavyweight picture, with the exception of the WBO #1 ranked Sultan Ibragimov, whom I think should swap positions with #5 ranked Ruslan Chagaev, the World Boxing Organization posts legitimate fighters in their top fifteen rankings.

First off, I have got to be honest when I say other than his last two fights against Dominick Guinn and Lamon Brewster, I have not seen, or heard of for that matter of Serguei Lyakhovich. I saw some footage of his fight against Guinn on December 3, 2004. From what I saw, Lyakhovich clearly won that fight. He did not fight again until his title shot on April 1, 2006 against Brewster. Up to that point, I honestly felt that Brewster was the best Heavyweight out there. Lyakhovich was hand-picked for Brewster and ended up with an upset win and the WBO Title. All in all, you can’t take that away from Sergei Lyakhovich. He battered Brewster for twelve rounds. He won the title in the ring.

Now, seven months later, for his first title defense, Lyakhovich is matched up with Shannon Briggs. On paper, this seems like a great match-up, but is it really the best the WBO has to offer? Of their ranked Heavyweights, it may be. At least both guys ARE ranked.

Briggs started his comeback on March 3, 2005 with a second round TKO win against Demetrice King. At the time, King held a 7-5-0 record (he currently holds a 9-15-0 record). Since then, his ONLY notable win was a 7th round KO against Ray Mercer.

Regardless of the caliber of fighter he has fought during his comeback I doubt anyone can question Shannon’s ability in the ring, however the big question mark that has and still surrounds him is his heart. Add question marks to his stamina and his chin. Three big concerns if you ask me. One last thing….I know he “looks good” but has he trained?

Lyakhovich’s road to the title was one of the easiest I have ever seen. If you look at his record, of his twenty-four fights, only twelve of his opponents had winning records. The only notable opponents were Dominick Guinn and Lamon Brewster. His loss came at the hands of Mo Harris by a 9th round knock out.

If I were to judge him by his record, I wouldn’t give him a chance against Briggs. However, I did see him beat up Lamon Brewster for twelve rounds and I have seen Briggs many times and always see the same thing; A guy that looks like a Gladiator, comes out like a gang buster, then runs out of gas if the fight should go beyond six rounds. The one exception was his win over Big George Foreman, which I personally felt he lost….George wuz robbed! I do think that Lyakhovich has the heart to go along with some respectable power. With his power and will to win, Lyakhovich may be in the drivers seat as the fight goes on.

In a nutshell, this fight may finally get some interest going again in the Heavyweight division, especially if Lyakhovich successfully defends his title. With a Champion in place that actually fights fighters in the top-five, maybe, just maybe, we may end up with a unified Heavyweight Champion again in the near future.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not think that Sergei Lyakhovich is the best Heavyweight out there, but at least he and his team are willing and ABLE to take on the best available fighters instead of fighting guys that aren’t even in the top-ten.

If today’s Heavyweights will fight the best the division has to offer rather than fight only “win-able” fights, we could have some excitement come back in the most recognizable division in boxing, the Heavyweights. Of the four major sanctioning bodies, the WBO seems the most likely to start with this weekend's bout.