Especially when the modern day fighter is a full-grown, accomplished heavyweight and the other guy is a light heavyweight.
Some of these guys need to stick to comic books and other fantasy realms with superheroes and super powers.
At the risk of stating the obvious. Would people be as quick to pick Briggs over Michael Spinks for example?
And as a group, how many wins do they have over prime top heavyweight contenders with Briggs' size and power? Also worth noting that Gibbons spent the first half of his career at middleweight and didn't even really settle into light-heavy until he was approaching 30...
Briggs was big, and powerful, and world class, but that is all that he was. This is not Lennox Lewis that we are talking about here.
McCline. I don't get the fascination with Briggs. Hes a career can crusher this board should be able to see through, hes even inconsistent against hand picked cans. His ceiling is low. He wasnt even better than Botha or a 48 year old Foreman in his final fight. His single decent win is the ugliest saddest title fights I've ever seen.
Gibbons by JKO. Briggs tries to troll Gibbons on the jet ski. Then realizes it wasn't invented yet, and drowns. Ringside doctor loses his snorkle. Rumours of a rematch are exposed as a farce. JKO. At best, technical JKO.
A fighter with a legitimate wins over recognized contenders, I suppose. Or something close to that. Briggs was 30-1 against mostly complete 'bums' and cans, all unranked. His "win" over 48 year old Foreman was a gift. He'd been KO'd a few fights earlier by unranked Darroll Wilson. That's not qualification for being in the world class. In more than 20 year career, with good backing and a good profile, Shannon Briggs's other credentials amount to a draw with Francois Botha and a last minute stoppage of Siarhei Liakhovich (himself a one-fight wonder), which stands as Briggs's best and only legit win over anyone ranked.
Briggs wasnt a top HW. Whats this obsession with size n power? it matter not if he doesnt have the boxing ability to land on gibbons. Briggs look like a puffing clown parody. Thats why lou ferringo and arnie schwarz werent HW chamopions of the world
Not even contenders, he didnt even beat the journeyman, fringe, or gate keeper types. Closet is his gift draw against Botha and KO loss to Wilson. 40 year old washed up Mercer and Calloway are his best genuine wins after Sergei. Wilder and Morrison have better resumes.
Yes. It's a scary situation that he's almost talking himself into big fights to this day, at age 45, when he wasn't even a top fighter in his prime.