Where do you rank him among the all time heavy hitters. I think he has the most first round ko's of any linear heavyweight champion.
Briggs is a huge hitter if he lands those steroid induced slow as mollases haymakers that a great grandad could slip
Marion Wilson said he was the single hardest puncher he ever faced, and he'd know. Really, the man bulked up to a freakish 270 plus pounds with the sole intention of knocking his opponents out in the first so his asthma didn't come into play, so of course his power was amazing.
His power ranks up there with anyone. He also has good handspeed to go with it. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all physical positives he has. His footspeed is bad, defence is wide open and his stamina is among if not the very worst of all top heavyweights. He did have great heart, though. To be thrashed across the ring and basically be his punching bag for two full rounds, yet still be willing to continue, takes a lot of courage. Some say his chin was bad but i think it's pretty good. My favorite Felix Savon fight is against Shannon Briggs, here you can see it: [YT]_oZYcjdSJtw[/YT]
I think Briggs hitting changed from a hard crisp hitter to a Foreman like clubber. As he got bigger he lost that sharpness
I remember when he lost to Darroll Wilson many years ago on the same card with Tua - Ruiz and Golata - Nicholson. The next time I saw him, he fought George Foreman who was 48 years old, in the last bout of his career, and in my opinion lost. After that, I pretty much wrote Briggs off and never again took interest in anymore of his fights.
Yes I did. Foreman was 3 years past the point where he had taken the crown from Michael Moorer. He had since gotten away with a gift against the obscure Axel Shultz, and had been stripped of his title for failure to give him a rematch. His power had grossly diminished as seen in his more recent performances. In fact, he had Ko'd all but 2 of his last 7 opponents within a 6 year period. He was fighting on average once per year, and was all but 13 months shy of his 50th birthday...... All this, and Briggs still failed to legitimately beat Foreman, as nearly everyone in the stadium was chanting " bullsit, bull**** ".. Briggs win over Foreman meant nothing, and the invisible lining of " lineal title ", does not errase his limitiations. In 1997, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis were considered by probably 98% of Most people as the best two fighters in the division. Briggs performance against Foreman hurt him, not helped him.....