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By Jake Donovan - It's almost a shame that the biggest question surrounding this weekend's heavyweight fight between Shannon Briggs and undefeated Sultan Ibragimov (Saturday June 2, live from Atlantic City, NJ, Warrior's PPV, 9PM ET/6PM PT) isn't whether or not it will be a good fight, but if it's worth shelling out $30 to order a la carte.
Another good question is how a bout deemed befitting of an HBO broadcast three months ago is now forced to go the pay-route.
The fight came about due to Ibragimov (20-0-1, 17KO) becoming mandatory challenger to the alphabet title Briggs (48-4-1, 42KO) scooped up last November in a last-second, come-from-behind knockout of Sergei Lyakhovich in Arizona.
HBO originally planned to run a bi-continental March 10 broadcast. Wladimir Klitschko's bout against Ray Austin would air live from Germany in the afternoon on stateside televisions, and then replay later in the evening as the lead-in to Briggs-Ibragimov. Plans fell by the wayside after Briggs caught a case of pneumonia a month prior to their bout and was forced to withdraw.
While Ibragimov and his promoter, Warriors Boxing, questioned the validity of Briggs' illness, HBO questioned the credentials of Ibragimov's new opponent, Javier Mora. The Mexican was deemed unworthy of airtime on HBO, who instead decided that Klitschko-Austin was good enough as a stand alone event. They got it half-right: Ibragimov wasted the hopelessly overmatched Mora in less than a minute. [details]
Another good question is how a bout deemed befitting of an HBO broadcast three months ago is now forced to go the pay-route.
The fight came about due to Ibragimov (20-0-1, 17KO) becoming mandatory challenger to the alphabet title Briggs (48-4-1, 42KO) scooped up last November in a last-second, come-from-behind knockout of Sergei Lyakhovich in Arizona.
HBO originally planned to run a bi-continental March 10 broadcast. Wladimir Klitschko's bout against Ray Austin would air live from Germany in the afternoon on stateside televisions, and then replay later in the evening as the lead-in to Briggs-Ibragimov. Plans fell by the wayside after Briggs caught a case of pneumonia a month prior to their bout and was forced to withdraw.
While Ibragimov and his promoter, Warriors Boxing, questioned the validity of Briggs' illness, HBO questioned the credentials of Ibragimov's new opponent, Javier Mora. The Mexican was deemed unworthy of airtime on HBO, who instead decided that Klitschko-Austin was good enough as a stand alone event. They got it half-right: Ibragimov wasted the hopelessly overmatched Mora in less than a minute. [details]