Nowadays, known as being abit of a clown but in his prime, just how good was Shannon Briggs? He won the WBO title in 2006. Destroyed by Lewis. Is there an argument for him being one of the better heavyweights of his time?
Believe it or not he actually was a very good amauter fighter coming out of New York that had really fast hands especially for a heavyweight. By the early 2000's he became a jacked heavyweight that relied on his power more than his amateur pedigree most likely because of steroid use.
Oh really? Wasn't aware of his hand speed. I thought he was known for his knockout power. Apparently, he holds the record for most first round KOs (37). Abit of a gatekeeper post Lewis though, I suppose.
As an older pro, he was definitely know for his power but when he was younger he had a lot of hand speed. Try to find videos of his early fights. He was different guy. He was clearly on the juice later in his career.
Really good combination of speed and power when he was young. Fought a lot of bums and tended to get pounded on whenever he stepped up though.
At the start of his career he was trained by Teddy Atlas and there was some effort to move him like Tyson was moved because a lot of people wanted him to be the new Tyson. But Darrell (???) Wilson stopped him in 3.
He didn't beat Foreman...that fight was at least as cut and dried as Holmes/Spinks 2. Probably moreso. Briggs was a good fighter, but I actually put him below other two time champs like Tim Witherspoon (which isn't a compliment). He got jabbed silly by very old fighter Foreman and got his head knocked in by Lewis and Klitschko. His taunting of Wlad was ridiculous, he never stood a chance against him and would have gotten stopped only a little later than he did against Lewis. A meh "champ" imo. No offense to fans....uh, are there any here? lol
And a fair bit going down as well. Seemed to be in the spotlight a lot longer than his resume suggests he should have been.
Bad steroid cheat. The way his body and weight changed its obvious to everybody so I dont give him a whole lotta validation
Briggs was a decent fighter but nothing special as far as top flight fighters go. Got an absolute gift against Foreman.
Not very good. Decent speed and power but poor defense and stamina. Overhyped at first until humbled by one Darroll Wilson. Recovered pretty well but never really elite. Note: I was at his WBO winning fight in Phoenix but left after the 11th round to beat traffic. He was way behind on pts. I was pretty surprised to read he won in the 12th. The guy he beat wasn't anything special.
