19.05.05 – By Eddy Manning: The hurricane is about to hit Chicago and it has bad intentions. Paul ‘The Hurricane’ Briggs, the number one light heavyweight contender in the WBC arrived in Chicago this week primed, confident and ready for the most important and valuable fight of his life. Briggs (23-1-0) who has a hard as nails attitude and a steely resolve doesn’t let himself get caught up in his emotions but in speaking to the press this week has promised a brutal fight for his opponent, Polands Tomasz Ademak (28-0-0) the number three WBC fighter. The fight will take place on the undercard to Saturday nights WBO heavyweight title fight between Lamon Brewster and Andrew Golota on PPV.
Saturday’s fight will bring the largest crowd Briggs has ever fought in front of, with the fight being beamed on pay per view to millions of homes around the world.
Briggs opponent Adamek aswell as Andrew Golota are both Polish natives and mixed with Chicagos huge Polish population it is shaping up to be a hostile welcome for Australian Briggs to say the least. “So I’m in his house, It’s nothing new. I’ve fought all over the world. I don’t have to fight every person in the stands, I just have to fight Tomasz Adamek.” Briggs said when asked about the huge Polish crowd expected.
If this doesn’t faze Briggs, you may ask what does? Is it Ademaks impressive undefeated resume that he brings with him? ”Adamek is well-schooled and has all the moves, but he’s never really been tested. He’s never fought anyone with my power or tenacity. He can’t handle my power and aggression.”
The road to Saturday nights fight, and what may possibly lay ahead has been anything but smooth for Briggs. A fighter since he barely talk, the Briggs family has fighting in their blood and it was inevitable that Briggs would one day fight himself. Although boxing was not Briggs first form of combat, he started kick boxing and the brutal Muay Thai fighting as a young teenager and by the time he was 15 he was an Australian Kick Boxing champion. Briggs eventually went to live in Thailand, where he won several more championships and became one of the best in the sport of Muay Thai “I’ve had 60 professional Muay Thai fights. My record is 55-5 with 39 KOs. Muay Thai includes elbows, knees, kicking and boxing.” Says Briggs, as if to almost warn Adamek that he is not intimidated in the least.
“My Muay Thai experience makes me more viscous. I’m a fighter first, a boxer second, technique and skill will take you only so far. Then it comes down to how much fight the dog has.” and if Ademak questions wether Briggs is more of a kick boxer than a pure boxer, he may only need to look as far as Briggs defeats over top ranked contenders Jorge Castro, Jesus Ruiz and Stipes Drews.
Briggs this week admitted to being a heavy drug user and going through a stage of his life that he would rather not discuss very often, he sees it better coming from his mouth than it being talked about to much in the future. ”I got into the wrong scene and was working as a DJ in a techno club. I did massive amounts of cocaine and ecstasy, I was working as a a debt collector for drug dealers and breaking people’s legs”.
All of the past experience will only help Briggs in looking forward to a better future and the confidence he needs to beat Adamek this weekend. In 2004, Briggs left local trainer Rod Waterhouse and established himself in Los Angelas to train with renowned and famous trainer Jack Mosely, he notes the change and credits it for bettering him in all aspects of his game. Briggs has been training at one of the Big Bear training facility’s which is owned by Jack and Shane Mosely in preparation for the Ademak fight for the past six weeks, he says that the alltitude, location and conditions are like a ‘natural performance enhancer’. He has also been sparing world ranked Super Middleweight Anthony Mundine on a recent training visit to his home country Australia.
When asked if he had any message for Ademak, Briggs said “This is gonna be a fight. There’s no tomorrow for me.”
A short, sharp and maybe even scary message to Ademak ahead of Saturday night. But then again, if your not somewhat intimidated coming face to face with a human hurricane, then you deserve a shot at destroying it. The hurricane is ready to sweep through the United Center and devastate a packed arena of Pro-Ademak supporters. but the hurricane will want to cause the most damage to the squared ring, on an opponent he has nothing but bad intentions for. If Briggs wants one more reason to win Saturday, its his daughters second birthday aswell. Hurricane alert Chicago. Paul Briggs has arrived.