Boxing News: Dino Duva Silences Shannon Briggs

Shannon Briggs talks and talks and talks to whoever will listen, and while some of his talk is grounded in fact, some seems grounded in wishful thinking. For example, Briggs and his manager Scott Hirsch have publicly speculated about making a fight with Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter in April. That sounds like a pretty good bout on the face of it, but there’s just one small problem: no one bothered to mention it to Team Peter.

According to Briggs, “About six weeks ago, Dino Duva called me directly on my cell phone and offered me $600,000 to fight Sam Peter. I accepted and no fight materialized. I’m happy to fight Sam Peter, today, tomorrow, April, May or any other day of the year for the $600,000 I was offered. I’m not asking for millions; I only want Dino to be a man of his word.”

Peter’s promoter, Dino Duva, heard Briggs' talk and responded with some talk of his own.

“I normally don’t like responding to con artists,” Duva said, “or getting involved in a circus act, but Shannon Briggs and his manager Scott Hirsch’s statements last night were so full of lies that I must respond to them this one time. I’ve always liked Shannon and Scott personally, but I think Shannon’s dreadlocks may be turning his brains to mush. It’s also disappointing to me that Scott may be falling for his lies.”

Hirsch said that Briggs is eager for this matchup and that they aren’t “pricing themselves out of the fight,” as Duva claimed. They just want the same purse that was offered less than two months ago for the same fight. “It’s highly inappropriate for a promoter to call a fighter directly without going through the manager, but Dino’s such a good guy and the offer seemed very fair, so I overlooked it. But to turn around and renege on the deal and try to fool the public is dead wrong. We’ll take the $600,000 we were offered to fight Peter today or any other day, but read my lips; Shannon Briggs is not on sale for 25% off. We’re negotiating several other fights, but we can get this done for Dino’s original offer. Not a penny more, not a penny less.”

Duva couldn’t believe his ears: “As to their contention that I offered Shannon Briggs a fight with Samuel Peter, I’ve never called Shannon Briggs directly. And I’ve never offered him a specific fight or purse to face Samuel – ever. The last time I spoke with or saw Shannon Briggs or Scott Hirsch was on December 15 at Sam Peter’s fight in Florida. While we have discussed the concept of him fighting Sam at some point, no specific purse offers were made.

“Their statement that I went around a fighter’s representatives to offer him a fight directly. I DO NOT go around fighters’ representatives to offer fights. That’s not the way I operate. And for the record, I would not even call his manager. If the fighter has a promoter, that’s who I would make a specific offer to, no one else.

“Do not attack my integrity. My word is very important to me. Not only have I never reneged on any offer to Briggs, I’ve never even made one. To their contention that Shannon Briggs is worth a $600,000 purse, it’s laughable. It’s my understanding that Shannon did a couple fights last year on pay-per-view and you could count the number of buys on your hands and toes. Ask the TV executives who control the purse strings in this business what they think of Shannon’s request for $600,000.

“That they are not pricing themselves out of this fight. They just did,” Duva insisted, “which, by the way, proves Samuel Peter’s manager Ivaylo Gotzev’s prediction that they would to be right on the money.

“In closing, please do not waste the time of a true warrior and man like Samuel Peter with your lame circus-act attempt to get publicity. Samuel Peter has bigger and more important prey to conquer than Shannon Briggs.”