Shannon Briggs Now A Bit Older, A Lot Leaner, Wants Tyson at Barclays

Published

10 years ago

December 20, 2013

The man is virtually unrecognizable, having shrunken himself measurably since we last saw him publicly, showing immense heart and admirable stubbornness against Vitali Klitschko on Oct. 16, 2010.

The Shannon Briggs I saw on Instagram is lean, presumably still mean, and looking to make another run at relevance, and, but of course, outsized paychecks.

Now 42, and having taken a hiatus to let his body heal, and decide how much, if anything, he wanted to do with the sweet science, Briggs, based in Florida, told me he lost 114 pounds, and is looking to pull a George Foreman-style second act.

“That’s the new look, I’m looking slim, feeling good,” the Brownsville, Brooklyn born hitter tells me. “I did it all natural, and took three years off to get myself together.”

No chemical or surgical aids were used to carve himself down, he says, from what a bunch of junk food, ice cream and pastries did to his physique. Nossir, he didn’t go the Chris Christie shortcut route to lean out.

When we last saw Briggs, he was drawing accolades for his toughness, hanging in with Vitali over 12 rounds of a one-sided scrap. Briggs (51-6-1) explained that he tore his left bicep in round one, and popped a tendon in that arm, so he was working with a limited arsenal. “If I had two arms….,” he says. “In the tenth I caught him with a right hand….”

The man wishes to get another taste of those glory days triumphs, such as his 1997 MD win over George Foreman, and his 2006 late-inning KO stunner over Sergei Liakhovich, to win the WBO heavyweight crown. He was pretty much over the sport, after taking that punishment against Klitschko, which left him in a Hamburg hospital. He recovered, and his Catscan was OK. But business dealings left him angered; he tells me he still hasn’t been paid his entire purse from that fight. In January 2011, he filed a suit versus former partners Greg Cohen, Shelly Finkel and Barry Honig, alleging breach of fiduciary duty. Briggs and Cohen worked together on a boxing and entertainment promotional company, Empire Sports and Entertainment, and that partnership dissolved in bitter fashion.

I called Cohen to get his side, and he told me he didn’t wish to comment. He gave me a number for an attorney, who he said has represented him, and would speak on his behalf. More than four hours later, I called that attorney, who said he’d need to touch base with Cohen, and see if the promoter wished to speak about the Briggs matter. I could call back next week, the attorney said.

I dialed a number in my Rolodex for Finkel, and it rang, no answer, no answering machine. The contact number for Shelly Finkel Management I found on the web is now a “non working number.”

Briggs told me he agreed to settle the case, for a settlement fee less than the purse he was promised. Whatever the specifics, it is clear Briggs is still a bit steamed, and gunshy about the sport, and the people who make the deals for and involving the fighters.

“I was left feeling like I had no one to defend me, but I’m being a man about it,” Briggs says, citing beefs with boxing media members, who he feels simply side with the most powerful parties in any equation. “I’m moving forward.”

But that’s only after, he says, he had a nervous breakdown, and sunk into a depressive state. “The last three years has been an emotional rollercoaster,” says Briggs, who lives in Miami with his wife of 20 years, Alana, and three kids, ages 16, 7 and two.

Post-Klitschko, he tried to get involved in other non-boxing ventures, including some Internet marketing with entrepreneur Gary Jonas. That included the marketing of a product pitched as being beneficial to asthma sufferers, such as Briggs. The dreadlocked muscleman and Jonas got into the boxing business together, as well, when Jonas formed a company called Acquinity. The two parted ways after doing business in 2012, and Jonas hooked on with another Brooklyner, Mike Tyson, who is the face of Iron Mike Productions, which is backed by Jonas, CEO of that entity.

Briggs, weighing 240 pounds, says he now has the backing of a billionaire he doesn’t wish to identify, and that mogul will be putting on shows, and is talking to potential broadcast partners. “My new motto is: ‘the best revenge is success,” he says. He tells me he has a book coming out shortly, as well.

So, when will he glove up? Early in the new year, he says, and he wants to take the Foreman route this time around. That’s Foreman during his second act, when he was the lovable cheeseburger chomper who blasted out C level pugs on USA. Matter of fact, Briggs is gently harassing Foreman regularly, trying to get Big George to train him.

“I’m going to shock the world again,” says Briggs. “I have so much energy, I want to show the people.” A dream fight, he said, would be him against Mike Tyson, in Brooklyn, at Barclays Center. Briggs told me he spoke to a rep for Tyson about the clash. “If the money is there, I’d love to fight Mike at Barclays, right now,” he said. “Two old emeffers, we’d sell the place out.”

The hustling, the networking, the grassroots self-marketing, Briggs says he’s digging it all. “I love it like this,” he says, “my back against the wall.”

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Michael Woods

Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

Published

6 hours ago

September 26, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Canelo-Charlo-Gets-All-the-Ink-but-Don't-Overlook-This-Compelling-Match-in-Turkey

Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

The eyes of the boxing world will be on Las Vegas this Saturday where Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez risks his four super middleweight title belts against unified 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo. Earlier that day at a luxury resort hotel in the city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, there’s a heavyweight match sitting under the radar that may prove to be the better fight. It’s an intriguing match-up between former world cruiserweight title-holder Murat Gassiev and Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin, a bout with significant ramifications for boxing’s glamour division.

Gassiev (30-1, 23 KOs) and Wallin (25-1, 14 KOs) have only one loss, but those setbacks came against the top dogs in the division. Gassiev was out-boxed by Oleksandr Usyk back in the days when both were cruiserweights. Wallin gave Tyson Fury a world of trouble before losing a unanimous decision.

Since those fights, both have been treading water.

Gassiev

Gassiev was inactive for 27 months after his match with Usyk while dealing with legal issues and an injury to his left shoulder. He is 4-0 (4 KOs) since returning to the ring while answering the bell for only eight rounds. The only recognizable name among those four victims is German gatekeeper Michael Wallisch. After stopping Wallisch, Gassiev was out of action for another 13 months while reportedly dealing with an arm injury.

A first-round knockout of Carlouse Welch, an obscure 40-something boxer from the U.S. state of Georgia on Aug. 26, 2022, in Belgrade, Serbia, was promoted as a title fight. The sanctioning body was the Eurasian Boxing Parliament (insert your own punchline here). Gassiev followed that up with a second-round knockout of former NFL linebacker Mike Balogun who came in undefeated and was seemingly a legitimate threat to him.

Although he has yet to fight a ranked opponent since leaving the cruiserweight division, Gassiev — a former stablemate of Gennady Golovkin who has been living in Big Bear, California, training under Abel Sanchez – is one of the most respected fighters in the division because he has one-punch knockout power as Balogun and others can well attest. The rub against the Russian-Armenian bruiser is that he is somewhat robotic.

Wallin

Otto Wallin, a 32-year-old southpaw from Sweden who trains in New York under former world lightweight champion Joey Gamache, fought Tyson Fury on Sept. 14, 2019 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There was a general feeling that the Swede would be a stroll in the park for Fury, but to the contrary, he gave the Gypsy King a hard tussle while losing a unanimous decision.

Wallin is 5-0 since that night beginning with victories over Travis Kauffman (KO 5) and Dominic Breazeale (UD 12), but his last three opponents were softer than soft and all three lasted the distance. In order, Wallin won an 8-round decision over Kamil Sokolowski, who was 11-24-2 heading in, won a 10-round decision over ancient Rydell Booker, and won an 8-round decision over Helaman Olguin. His bout with Utah trial horse Olguin was at a banquet hall in Windham, New Hampshire.

It isn’t that Wallin has been avoiding the top names in the division; it’s the other way around. His promoter Dmitriy Salita reportedly came close to getting Wallin a match with Anthony Joshua whose team had second thoughts about sending Joshua in against another southpaw after back-to-back setbacks to Oleksandr Usyk.

Gassiev vs Wallin is a true crossroads fight. Both are in dire need of a win over a credible opponent. At last look, Gassiev, who figures to have the crowd in his corner, was a 3/1 favorite.

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

Published

2 days ago

September 24, 2023

David A. Avila

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.

It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.

Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.

Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.

Bustillo Wins Rematch

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In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.

Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.

Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.

After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.

Other Bouts

In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.

A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

Published

3 days ago

September 23, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Tedious-Fights-and-a-Controversial-Draw-Smudge-the-Matchroom-Boxing-Card-in-Orlando

Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.

SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other. There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.

It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.

Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.

Other Bouts of Note

The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.

The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.

In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing

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