Was Shannon Briggs ever good?

But he did fight on for 20 years

actually i did door to door selling, i quit after one day.

 

Actually it was 19 years. But glad you're in a new profession :good

 

The substance of Briggs' "goodness" is the fact that he hurt Lewis in the first and won the second before the wheels fell off. Bad fighters don't do that against all time greats. Even fighters who tends to be better regarded didn't have the same success against Lewis that Briggs did over the first two frames.

He was infuriating because he could never seem to fight consistently for any more than a couple of rounds at a time and some of the losses he suffered were rather inglorious, but he wasn't a fraud or hype job, either. Given his inconsistency and stamina issues, he actually did a bit more than what might have been expected of him.

 

I would say Briggs had great power. Interestingly enough he changed as he aged. Briggs did not take a good punch as a young man, but bulked up considerably as he aged. His neck size went up a few notches as did his confidence. As such, he took a better punch in his later 30's, which is rare for anyone.

 

Briggs was an enigma. He wasn't better than most of the contenders at the time, but he possessed the ability to beat plenty of fighters above his level because of his great speed and power combo. He was like a fighter in a video game who you build up with exciting traits while ignoring stamina because it's boring.

He's notable because he managed to hold the linear title, would regain a belt later, stunned Lewis, and took a horrific beating at the hands of Vitali. He slept for a few years in the early 2000s but eventually got serious again.

His best win was Liakovich.

 

His loses to Fields and McCline were not in his prime. He was unmotivated and out of shape during that stretch.

 

Two good rounds against Lewis does not make one a good fighter. Bert Cooper had good rounds against Holyfield, fighters can have moments. Cooper was better than Briggs. Fact is Briggs resume is incredibly soft, Liakovich is his best win and he was trailing in that fight and won it with one second remaining. He doesn't possess a single quality win other than that and never deserved the Foreman fight or the gift decision. He probably possessed the weakest resume of all Lewis's opponents from Ruddock on. He was fed a steady stream of tomato cans to fatten up his record and his image as this tornado of power it was all hype. To his credit he tried to win and showed real toughness in his fights with Lewis and Klitschko. However, let's stop trying to build him up to something more with revisionist history he never defeated anyone of note. There is a reason for that.

 

McCline was actually good though and on a hot run, he just KOed Grant and outboxed Whitaker who was fresh off a KO over Oleg. Easily best guy Briggs ever fought bar Lewis and Vitali.

 

If Liakovich doesn't count, then Foreman's win over Moorer doesn't count either.

 

Jameel McCline was a good fighter, a solid contender and better than Briggs.

 

I never said Liakovich doesn't count I said it's his best and only win of note. Also Liakovich is not as good as Moorer but that is Another discussion. Also Foreman would still be an ATG with or without Moorer on his resume despite it being a great achievement.

 

I've never been sold on the White Wolf. He was brilliant against Brewster but he never looked like that fighter before that night or again. Certainly not against Briggs, where he looked like he had cement in his gloves and feet, slow, intimidiated, and doing only slighter more than the equally timid and sluggish Briggs. I think he was an ordinary fighter who had one fearless inspiried night.

Harris KOing him in similar cicrumstances to the Briggs fight earlier in his career and Valuev using him as a punching bag in just his next fight seem to confirm thisHis performance in the Briggs fight was such a startling drop off, he looked like simply didn't want to fight and he still was winning easy. . I would credit Briggs more for Liakhovich if they both didn't look utter crap in the actual fight.

 

That fight seemed fishy. Just as soon as the bell rang for the first round, the two met in the ring, and McCline barely looked like he tagged him, and Grant went down. Grant got up, McCline started throwing windmills all over of the place and Grant quit saying his ankle was broken.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8K8NKhoWeo

 

Never thought it was fishy, just hilarious. I remember it was Grant's big comeback, the road to redemption starts here. It was a good quick left hook, McCline's signature punch. He caught Grant dry with a shot he didn't see coming, Grant was hurt and wanted no part of it after that and quit. McCline was Lewis' sparring partner, he probably gave him some tips.

 

I won't call fixed or anything like that, but it was strange as hell.