By Cliff Rold
Really?
Even in a Heavyweight division as shallow as this one, the best that the second best Heavyweight in the world can come up with in the last year is a trifecta of Kevin Johnson, Albert Sosnowski, and Shannon Briggs?
Really?
Have the brothers Klitschko reached a point where Wladimir will be facing the contenders and Vitali simply makes appearances? It’s hard not to wonder given this run. It’s also hard to fault Vitali. Look around for the top contenders chomping at the bit to get Vitali (or Wladimir for that matter) in the ring.
Bueller?
Thus we are left with this theatre of the ‘really?’ Klitschko facing history’s least regarded former lineal Heavyweight champion, a Briggs who won a head scratcher over George Foreman in 1997 and promptly coughed it up to Lennox Lewis in a decent little fight.
Given his performance against Nicolay Valuev in 2008, and against the last man to beat Briggs (Sultan Ibragimov) in 2007, if a former champ with almost no chance was going to get a call, Evander Holyfield probably should have been the one. Instead, it’s Briggs.
Holyfield can always cross his fingers for 2011. Don’t laugh. The way things are going, it’s hardly far fetched. After all, really, this Saturday Vitali Klitschko is fighting Shannon Briggs.
Who saw that coming?
Let’s go the report card.
The Ledgers
Vitali Klitschko
Age: 39
Title: WBC Heavyweight (2008-Present, 4 Defenses)
Previous Titles: WBO Heavyweight (1999-2000, 2 Defenses); WBC/Ring Magazine Heavyweight (2004-05, 1 Defense, Retired)
Height: 6’7 ½
Weight: 251 lbs.
Average Weight – Last Five Fights: 248.4 lbs.
Hails from: Kiev, Ukraine
Record: 40-2, 38 KO
BoxingScene Rank: #1 at Heavyweight
Record in Title Fights: 10-2, 9 KO, 2 KOBY
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Defeated: 5 (Herbie Hide, Orlin Norris, Corrie Sanders, Samuel Peter, Juan Carlos Gomez)
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Faced in Defeat: 2 (Chris Byrd, Lennox Lewis)
Vs.
Shannon Briggs
Age: 38
Titles: None
Previous Titles: Lineal World Heavyweight Champion (1997-98); WBO Heavyweight (2006-07)
Height: 6’4
Weight: 262 lbs.
Average Weight – Last Five Fights: 266.45 lbs.
Hails from: Brooklyn, New York
Record: 51-5-1, 41 KO
BoxingScene Rank: Unrated
Record in Title Fights: 2-2, 1 KO, 1 KOBY
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Defeated: 3 (George Foreman, Ray Mercer, Sergei Lyakhovich)
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Faced in Defeat: 2 (Lennox Lewis, Sultan Ibragimov)
Pre-Fight Grades
Speed – Klitschko B; Briggs B
Power – Klitschko A-; Briggs B
Defense – Klitschko B+; Briggs C
Intangibles – Klitschko A; Briggs D
On his way up the ranks, Briggs looked like he had the whole package. Regularly entering the ring below 230 lbs., Briggs had speed and pop, the picture of the ideal athlete. The problems came when the lens was shuttered and pictures had to be put in motion.
Struggles with asthma, stamina, punch output, enthusiasm, and focus have always been problems. So has a low work rate and weight gain. Briggs, sometimes looking in decent shape and sometimes not, usually comes in closer to 260 or 270 these days and has again this weekend (it’s at least a fairly cut 260+).
The speed is now reserved to the occasional snappy almost surprising blow but otherwise is nowhere to be found. Against better opponents (and Briggs hasn’t faced one since his loss to Ibragimov in 2007), he has hardly moved his hands at all in the 2000s. If he remembers to this weekend, Briggs still carries a potent right hand and a jarring left hook, the sort of two fisted power combined with size Klitschko rarely sees. Even if he remembers, does he have the tools to deliver the blows?
Klitschko uses his toolbox to the fullest, managing a steady work rate and always shows up in the best shape he can. It’s clockwork dependable. He’s not showing the same snap, and same reflexes, in his last couple fights as he did at the beginning of his comeback but Klitschko still has some of the most underrated feet in boxing. Whether he’s fighting someone who paws and attempts to counter (like Johnson) or an aggressor like a Chris Arreola, Klitschko does a good job of using an awkward up jab to measure foes and maintain his balance just out of range of danger. If Briggs stands outside waiting for the prayer to open up, Klitschko will let him while stabbing him with the jab and coming forward with his nasty, slashing right hand.
The difference in this fight is likely what makes the difference between careers of Klitschko and Briggs. Klitschko is a professional is every sense of the word, pushing himself to be the best fighter he can be, and he’s had to work hard to do it. Briggs counts among his losses a non-arrival against Sedrick Fields.
These are very different prizefighters.
The Pick
An upset can happen anywhere, especially when the favored man in 39 years old. This weekend, it is the least likely scenario. The best of Briggs would struggle with even this older, slowing version of Vitali. The best of Briggs is behind him.
That doesn’t mean there is no shot at the upset. Briggs has the miracle punch chance just as anyone with his heavy hands would have. The risk in the fight is all Klitschko. Vitali has his proponents, those willing to throw the ‘g’ word around in discussing him. History may prove them right on Vitali being great, but his resume is deathly shallow and a loss to a faded Briggs, even at 39, would be crippling because there isn’t enough quality behind it.
That’s all a lot of big if-ing though. Klitschko might have to deal with the one punch prayer, but Briggs still has way too much bulk for his frame, way too little activity, and way too much of a deficit in overall skill. There may be a flash or two of drama but look for a generally sleepy, ‘this feels way longer than it is’ snoozefest as Klitschko racks up points en route to a decision win or late stoppage.
Really.
Report Card Picks 2010: 23-12
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com