By Edward Chaykovsky
Heavyweight contender Shannon Briggs is crossing his fingers that WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew will pull off the upset on Saturday night, when he moves up to the heavyweight division to fight David Haye in a Sky Sports Box Office clash at the O2 Arena in London.
There is a lot of bad blood between Briggs and Haye.
The two of them had a verbal agreement to fight each other last fall. Haye invited Briggs to fight on his May undercard, and told the former WBO champion that provided they both win, they would then face each other at the end of the year. They both won their respective fights with very quick knockouts, but their showdown never happened. Briggs claims that Haye went radio silent and cut off all communication between them.
Briggs is now in a good position. He is heading forward with a clash against Fres Oquendo for the vacant WBA "regular" world title. There is no word yet on the exact date, location or venue.
For much of last year, Briggs was hoping to retire Haye from boxing. Now he hopes Bellew will be the man to accomplish that task.
"I'd like to see Bellew pull it off because I think David is bad for boxing," Briggs told Sky Sports. "He's just the sort of guy that says a lot of things but just goes and does something different.
"He's done that to me and he's done it to Tyson Fury a couple of times. I just hope Bellew can knock him off his rhythm and beat him. I want him to knock Haye out once and for all. I am going to be a world champion soon so maybe then I could fight [Haye] him, use him as a stepping stone from the 'bums of the month club' - but I am not really thinking about David Haye at the moment.
"But if it did happen, I'd just go out there and knock him out. I'd really like that because he's been saying some horrible, horrible things and is enjoying the celebrity side of it all. But when it comes down to it, if Tony or me knock his teeth out, will he keep doing that?"
