Thus far, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has missed out on the mega-fights that we saw from former champions like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. But that could change with the hype that 42-year-old Shannon Briggs is singlehandedly creating by following Wladimir Klitschko around the globe and getting in his face at every opportunity to force him to fight him.
Briggs has been ignored by Klitschko so far, but Briggs doesn’t care about that. He plans on continuing his one-man campaign to get the fight with the Ukrainian fighter. While it may not be working for Briggs right now, he’s steadily building interest in fight between him and Wladimir Klitschko in Germany.
The fans over in Germany are being bombarded constant news about Briggs’ confrontations with Klitschko. At this point a fight between Briggs and Wladimir Klitschko would likely be the biggest match of his career. That’s unfortunately more of an indication of the lack of interesting opponents that Wladimir has had than an endorsement of Briggs. Klitschko has faced largely unknown fighters or guys that were played out by the time he did face them.
Briggs said “They talking Champ!!! It’s time Champ!!! All you Wladimir fans & non believers are going to kiss my…”
As Michael Marley points out, don’t be surprised if a billionaire emerges that opts to bankroll a fight between Klitschko and Briggs by putting up $18 million to stage the fight in the New York area. With Briggs’ public relations skills, he would make a fight between the two fighters into a big event, even though he would be a huge underdog.
Briggs was beaten by Wladimir’s brother former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2010. Briggs points out that he fought the entire fight with a ripped bicep that he suffered in the 2nd round. Briggs feels that with two good arms, he’d get to Klitschko’s chin and expose him in the same way he was in his knockout losses to Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster and Ross Puritty in the past.
