Shannon Briggs’s Unlikely Redemption

By Bart Barry

Quitter. Underachiever. Asthmatic. For the rest of his life, Shannon Briggs will now only be called one of those things again. That’s because two days ago, in 30 redemptive seconds that followed 2,130 damning ones, Shannon Briggs changed his legacy, became a champion, and proved that, whatever it may sometimes lack in drama or recognition, heavyweight prizefighting is always suspenseful.

Last Saturday night, in a historic main event on the pitcher’s mound of Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, Shannon Briggs surprised the world and knocked-out WBO Heavyweight Champion Sergei Liakhovich at 2:59 of the twelfth round. With approximately four seconds remaining in a match Liakhovich led on all three scorecards, the dazed champion fell through the ropes, out of the ring, and onto a press table.

Shannon Briggs, whose thunderous right hands began Liakhovich’s trip off the apron, watched Referee Bobby Ferrara stop the bout. Then Briggs almost collapsed in a far corner. Some of his weakness was elation, some of it was relief; much of it, though, was the breathless fatigue that had plagued him through the entirety of the fight and most of his career.

So, in an effort to present just how unlikely Briggs’s victory was to those who witnessed it from a few feet away, allow me to weave excerpts from my ringside notes into a narrative of the fight itself.

“Round 2: Mouthpiece backwards for Briggs at the open. Briggs is breathing heavily and looks extremely nervous about committing to anything. Very insecure. Liakhovich wins round by default.”

This came after the first round, one in which Shannon Briggs stomped from his corner and stormed Sergei Liakhovich – as everyone expected he would. He appeared to frighten Liakhovich, if not hurt him. But then Briggs’s eyes grew, his mouth opened, and his breathing labored.

“Round 6: Liakhovich came out with a strong combination to start the round. Briggs looks simply sad; he has no air. He’s as focused on breathing as he is on punching. Too bad.”

By the end of that round, Shannon Briggs had fought most of the bout’s first half as many feared he would fight the bout’s second half. A flood of boos came from the frustrated Chase Field crowd. The loudest sounds at ringside, though, were from Briggs’s own camp, berating him for inactivity.

Eighteen minutes into the fight, another thing became clear. At every instant of every round, Shannon Briggs had to choose: defend, punch, or breathe. Three times, in each round, Briggs saw an opening in Liakhovich’s defense, considered it, then opted to breathe rather than punch.

“Round 10: Briggs took some big shots in that round. Liakhovich opened up for the first time and appeared to have Briggs at least a bit stunned. Briggs cannot breathe.”

With effectively two rounds remaining in his prizefighting career, then, Shannon Briggs nervously shuffled to his corner. A crew of five or six trainers and handlers began to yell at him. Arizonans made their ways out the Chase Field exits.

The opening bell for Round 11 rang, and Shannon Briggs went to center ring. Referee Ferrara then called time-out and admonished Briggs for not wearing his mouthpiece. Somewhere in the panic of his corner, someone forgot to replace Briggs’s mouthpiece. But did Briggs forget his mouth was empty?

Of course not. By then, Briggs was desperate enough to risk a one-point penalty for a little more air.

“Round 12: Briggs knocked him out! Liakhovich knocked through the ropes! Liakhovich on the press table! Liakhovich is still on the press table. Who imagined this?”

Sergei Liakhovich, ahead 105-104 on one judge’s card and 106-103 on the other two, went out in the final round and took unnecessary chances against a 270-pound man. With 0:30 remaining in the fight, Liakhovich caught a couple right hands, went down, stood up, and wobbled to Referee Ferrara. Ten seconds later, he was on a press table – where he remained for another three minutes.

And Shannon Briggs was the new WBO Heavyweight Champion of the World.

At the postfight press conference, while Don King treated Indian tribes, cold-war politics, spiritual happenings, and his own legacy – “I humbly submit it’s not braggadocio; it’s just a fact” – an emotional Shannon Briggs did not stop smiling.

Meanwhile, Sergei Liakhovich’s crestfallen trainer Kenny Weldon answered, “I don’t remember,” when asked what instructions he’d given Liakhovich before the final round.

The press conference broke up. Asked if he was surprised by what happened, Kenny Weldon said, “Not at all. We didn’t do anything we worked on. I told Sergei to stop jabbing to the body, that eventually he was going to get caught.”

Too, there was an important question for Shannon Briggs, a part-time actor with work in two feature films: Was the breathing real or embellished?

“It was real,” the new champion said. “It was very hard.”

Was it true that he was more afraid of his own lungs than of Liakhovich?

“That’s absolutely true,” Briggs answered.

Outside the press room, his trainer Chuck McGregor, the only man who believed Briggs could win a late stoppage, confirmed Briggs’s breathing troubles, saying, “He had an asthma attack in the first round. I held him back after that.”

So now, once more, it’s time to go heavyweight-savior hunting. Years ago, the fortunes of boxing’s flagship division were tied to Shannon Briggs. It didn’t go well when he was still young. What hope is there now?

How about this? Because of his conditioning woes, Shannon Briggs is the one heavyweight champion who’s more likely to be decisioned by a journeyman than beaten by IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko. That means Shannon Briggs would be mad to take a “tune-up” fight.

Whether that makes the case hopeful or hopeless is hard to say. But this much is not: For the rest of his life, Shannon Briggs will never again be called an underachiever or a quitter.

SAND BOX
Saturday night, the aforementioned Kenny Weldon confirmed that Jesus “El Martillo” Gonzales will be making his pugilistic return to Phoenix in January of 2007. And it looks like Ayala Promotions will be the outfit to make it happen.