Shannon Briggs comments on Lennox, Foreman and Vitali

The only thing that says is after 13 yrs prior when he fought Foreman, and 12 yrs prior when he fought Lewis.
Briggs had taken too many punches between 1997-1998 and 2010 when he fought Kleichko.
All jokes aside Briggs was a much better version of himself when he faced Foreman in 97" and Lewis in 98..
I'm sure if he faced Lewis or Foreman in 2010 th e year he faced Kleichko he would say the same thing for them .
So those comments actually mean very little in my opinion when one considers the time frame of when he fought Foreman and Lewis, and the many years after when he faced Kleichko.

 

He may well hit harder than the ancient Foreman whom Briggs beat. Wouldn't really be surprising.

 

But Saint Bertram Sugario verse III
“A punch is the last thing to go”

 

Well, that settles it

 

That may well be true. Foreman could probably still, even now knock down most of today’s heavyweights if they just stood there and let him take a free shot at their chin but there’s no doubt that age and time will still lessen the impart of punches no matter how naturally heavy your punch is because you will lack the reflexes, speed and timing to maximise the effectiveness of your punches as you could when you were at your fighting physical peak.

 

Just because power is the last thing to go does not mean power does not decline with age. Foreman could still hit hard as 48 but not as hard as he could when he was 25.

 

Briggs beat Foreman? Oh that's right. For some reason seeing it put like that still nauseates me lol. And yes, the Foreman who fought Briggs had much less power, though he did break Shannon's nose and dominate him with the best jabbing display of his career.

 

But it does go....

 

I can see how fighting someone when you’re 38 might make the SEEM better than someone you fought at 25…. Perspective.

 

Packing on a muscular 30 pounds would make the opponent’s power seem lower.

 

Lewis was better, and Foreman in his prime. Briggs fought him when he was 47.

 

Context matters. Against Foreman, Briggs used a lot of lateral movement and was often moving away from the punches. This was also an ancient, more reserved Foreman who had lost a lot of snap on his shots and rarely pulled the trigger like he used to. Neither guy took a whole lot of punishment.

Against Lewis, Briggs went down 3x fairly early.

Against Vitali, Briggs was about a thousand years old with diminished reflexes and basically had to sit there eating flush bombs for 12 rounds. Vitali couldn't miss him with his eyes closed and the ref for some reason saw no reason to stop it. It really isn't too surprising that his perception is that Vitali is the harder hitter because he took more prolonged punishment in that fight than several of his prior fights combined.

Based on actual results and looking at the opponents react to the punches, Vitali quite clearly isn't a harder hitter than Lewis and Foreman. Vitali has multiple fights where he unloads dozens of bombs all night and cannot score a knockdown, let alone a knockout. This is partly due to the fact he is so robotic and throws a lot of arm punches that lack proper snap and weight transfer.

 

Foreman was 48 & approaching 49 when he fought & got robbed against Briggs.
Just like Shultz seems to have been robbed against Foreman.
Ages during fights near bottom under "[url]Professional Boxing Record"[/url].