by James Slater – Former lineal and WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs made it a very short night last night in Hollywood, Florida as he starched Cuban fighter Rafael Pedro inside a mere 30-seconds! Having his first fight this year, the 38-year-old “Cannon” unleashed just one punch, a right hand to the head, and down Pedro went to be counted out at the 28-second mark. It was that simple.
Now 49-5-1(43), the Brooklyn heavyweight said after the fight that the action he got was “all he needed,” and that he is used to many of his fights ending early. Pedro, who had previously only been stopped one time (way back in his pro debut), is now 20-9-1(14).
Hopefully, this 1st-round win for Briggs will stick. As fans may recall, back in December, after Briggs had made almost as short a work of journeyman Marcus McGee, his win was changed to a No-Contest due to how Shannon failed his port-fight drugs test. We don’t want a repeat of that, quite obviously..
Weighing-in at 263-pounds for last night’s “fight,” Briggs, always a big guy, looked to be in reasonable condition; but then again, the action was so short it’s hard to tell how much the former champ has left, stamina-wise. Still, at least Briggs has evidently been training; weighing-in at around ten-pounds less than he did for the McGee fight. Making it clear that he is fighting on because he wants a crack at one of the two Klitschko brothers, Briggs, if he’s serious, will fight again soon, and against a much better opponent that Pedro (in reality, after last night’s pathetically easy fight, Briggs could box again next week; if not even sooner!)
Last night saw Briggs fight his third bout in almost three years (since his points loss to Sultan Ibragimov), and if he really does feel he has more to offer he will not hang around, instead avoiding anymore inactive spells.
Who knows; with his height, his reach and his still formidable punching power, the man who has been in with guys like George Foreman and Lennox Lewis just might be capable of at least testing either Wladimir or Vitali. Briggs is still seemingly a million miles away from such a fight at the moment, but the always-colourful Brooklyn warrior could possibly talk his way into one more big title fight.
And remember, as much as fans are keen to knock Briggs, he has only been stopped twice in well over 50 fights. Let’s see how this particular comeback develops.