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Saturday night will be interesting for boxing fans. Besides the Mayweather vs Baldomir fight, which should be outstanding, there will be one of the most important heavyweight fights. While the Mayweather fight is on PPV, Showtime will feature WBO champion Sergei Liakhovich defending against Shannon Briggs.
Liakhovich ("The White Wolf")is probably the top of the four "champions" since the last real champion, Lennox Lewis, retired. I base that on his win over Lamon Brewster, who was the top contender in the post-Lewis years. In their fight, which the WBO called "Fight of the Year," Brewster scored a 7th round knockdown, but lost most of the second half of the fight.
Liakhovich is 6'4", weighs about 240 lbs, and is always in top shape when he enters the ring. He isn't a huge puncher, but sets a fast pace, and has an outstanding body attack. I have always believed that with everything else about even, a good body puncher usually wins most fights.
Liakovich showed a strong jab and a particularly effective overhand right, which Brewster was unable to cope with. If he has a weakness that may come into play against Briggs, it would be that he has very little head movement. He isn't quite as stiff as what one associates with European boxers of past eras, but his head is a target. His lone loss was a 9 round TKO by a Lennox Lewis sparring partner. It was the result of his failure to move his head.
Boxing fans will remember Liakhovich from his KO over English star Audley Harrison in the amateurs. He also beat Dominick Guinn by decision on 12-3-04. But the Briggs fight will really be only his second time stepping up to the top level in the professionals. The 30 year old has a 23-1 record, with 14 KOs.
Shannon "The Cannon" Briggs is 34 years old. He has had a longer professional career (47-4-1, with 41 KOs), though he has had periods of inconsistency that have made him suspect with boxing experts. One of the biggest questions has been his conditioning: the main issue has always been his psychological make-up, as his biggest problem has been self-doubt.
He is best known for two big fights: a decision win over Big George Foreman, and a 5 round knockout loss to Lennox Lewis. He had hurt Lewis seriously with a right hand punch in the first round, but was not able to take advantage of it. Many people believed he had punched himself out in that round. I don't. He was trained to go more than one round, but Lewis's ability to take his best punches scared Shannon. He was not strong enough mentally.
Briggs is 6'4", and 260 lbs. He is a very hard puncher, especially with his right cross. Briggs is on an 11-win streak, and has appeared to be in the mature phase of his career. As a result, as the Showtime "commercials" for the fight note, he has become the heavyweight that no one wants to fight. It had appeared he would be matched with Wladimir Klitschko in his hometown of NYC, but that fell through. (Wladimir fights Brock on 11-11 in MSG.)
Briggs is saying he is training for a knockout against Liakhovich. He has said he isn't concerned that the fight will go into the late rounds. That could be costly, if accurate. But, on the other hand, Brigg's best chance is to end the fight before the 6th round. After that, Liahkovich's body punching and ability to fight at a very fast pace -- especially for heavyweights -- in the second half of a fight will give him a decided advantage.
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