Vitaly is the same age, has fought much better overall comepetion, and has has numerous documeted serious injuries besides. In fact, Vitaly, at thirty nine with multiple documetned surgeries and injuries, should really start mixing in some of the older heavies. If anyone objected to victories over the older guys, Vitaly and his fans could always point to his own age and multiple inuries. I pray for a fast recovery for Shannon, by the way.
Briggs IS shot. But thats only half the point. The other (and more important) point is that Briggs was never any good to begin with. Briggs has also taken beatings that Vitaly has never taken.
The same young Shannon Briggs who was destroyed by Darrol Wilson... who? Darrol Wilson... same guy who lost a decision to Zuri Lawrence.. Briggs has ALWAYS been overhyped as hell. Incredibly fast and explosive when put in the ring with someone slow and plodding. Take a look at his record, its chock full 'o bums.
You people are starting to annoy me. No good to begin with? Then who the hell was he supposed to fight when everyone that are supposed to be somewhat competitive (except for Adamek which openly wants to prepare some more first) is running and hiding? Stop bitching.
He did'nt look shot, he just looked past his best, now Rahman looked shot against Wlad, Casamayor look shot against Marquez, also, Hatton looked shot against Lazcano and Pac imo, despite getting that win over Malignaggi. All those fighters displayed bad balance, and just generally looked like frail fighters from what I saw.
Ok, the difference is that you referenced "a young Briggs" who got his ass beat any time stepped up in competition.. and then you try and compare him to Wlad's freak loss to Corrie Sanders. Wlad has been nothing but dominant since then (with the exception of Lamon Brewster, which Wlad avenged). What has Briggs done since 2003? Not even since 1995, but since 2003... He's feasted on bums, taken 2 year layoffs, feasted on even more bums... lost a decision to Ibragimov, tested positive for some PEDs, feasted on more bums.... Theres a big difference bruh.
One question: When was the last time Briggs looked good in a fight? :huh Now i'm not trying to discredit Vitali's win, but who really gave Briggs a serious chance at winning this? Briggs was never a great fighter.
in 56 pro fights shannon has 2 wins over a top 10 fighter lycovich and a 48 year old foreman so not losing in 8 years means **** when the guys have 13 losses on their record atsch
Briggs is a tough guy. I met him. I've seen him train at a MMA center where a bunch MMA guys looked scared out of there minds staring at this behemoth spar and watching highlights of his KOs. I hope Shannon retires because he really can't accomplish anything more at this point. He did what only two other guys have done and that's go the distance with him, and it was no run and hide affair like Kevin Johnson (NOTE: I know he lost to Byrd and Lewis, but one was him retiring through ruining his shoulder and the other was being stopped because half the blood in his body was coming out of the side of his face). Briggs and Cohen got the Empire running with a good stable of fighters. I would hope he would focus on that now.
