First significant step up for Shannon since mounting his comeback, I think this fight will tell a lot about where he stands in the current heavyweight landscape. Love is no world beater, but he's ranked in the top 100 and is definitely a step up from the likes of Greer and Maurenzo Smith. Tommy Morrisons son is also fighting on the undercard.
Fight 8 tomato cans, get thrashed in a title fight, wash rinse repeat. I dont begrudge the man making a living but no title shots please
He won't need to do that until he fights a GBP or Top Rank fighter or K2 fighter. If he fights these lower level journeyman and slips into the fringe against like Derrick rossy or something, he could get ranked with a single top 10 ABC win. Just gotta put a run together against the right guys.....most of which arent going to put roid roadblocks out. :think
You gotta like his chances though. He'll KO Love tonight in 4, and if he can get Rossy into the ring.....how long does that one last. Rossy just beat Hanks, who was ranked, and a win over Rossy before fall, and then a fight with someone like Gerber could get him a shot at the WBA title or even as a name on Stiverne/Wilder/Perez/Jennings resume next spring. It's doable. I just wouldnt ever want to see him get killed by fighting Wlad.:-(
If he's gonna keep stepping up, ie fight someone better than Love next, Im happy with him hanging around. Foreman hung around until he was narrowly outpointed by a young Briggs.....Mercer hung around until he couldnt put guys like Rossy down....Botha's still hanging around.....Holyfield just hung em up....Tony Thompson is still a top 20 HW. If Briggs is finally gonna make a LEGIT run at a title, I got no problem with it so long as it's not in his typcialy way.......bum, bum, bum, journeyman, bum, clubby, TITLE FIGHT.
Shannon Briggs' career, relative to people even discussing him of late still: -1992-97, Typical beginning of a career; cupcake wins, random TKO loss, etc. -1997-98, Beats Foreman controversially to take Lineal HW title. KO'd by Lennox in first title defense. -1998-06, Draw with Botha, Loss to McCline, and Win over Mercer with a bunch of cupcakes between. -2006- Beats Liakhovich with epic last second KO to take WBO HW title. Lost it to Sultan Ibragimov in first title defense. And then, let us look one fight at a time starting with him losing the WBO to Sultan... 2009- NC 1, Marcus McGee, 22-17 (Briggs' tests positive after original KO1 win) 2010- W KO1, Rafael Pedro, 20-8-1 2010- W TKO1, Dominique Alexander, 19-8-1 2010- W TKO1, Rob Calloway, 70-11-2 2010- L UD12, Vitali Klitschko, 40-2 (scorecards: 120-107 X2, 120-105) 2014- W KO1, Maurenzo Smith, 12-8-3 2014- W KO1, Francisco Mireles, 17-8 2014- W TKO1, Matthew Greer, 16-12 2014- ? ????, Raphael Zumbano Love, 34-7-1 (tonight's fight) --- Stop talking about him. You give him too much credit. It's not 2006-07 anymore and that should have been the last we heard of him.
