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Briggs
finds a last round answer against Serguei Lyakhovich, but leaves more
questions.
Mike Cassell “The Philadelphia Boxing Report”
(NOV 7) I thought it was bad in Philly, when we snowballed Santa Clause,
and continually harass our athletes, until they leave our city and win
Championships elsewhere, but the crowd at Chase field in Arizona started
booing by the 2nd round during the WBO heavyweight fight on Saturday
night between Serguei Lyakhovich 23 – 2, and Shannon Briggs 48 – 4. The
fight got very boring, very quickly when it seemed both men were running
out of gas by the 2nd or 3rd round.
Lyakhovich, who gave up 20lbs to the
wider Briggs, seemed hesitant to take advantage, of Briggs lackadaisical
style, and paid dearly for it in the 12th round when he got caught by a
very late and very hard right hand, and lost by KO. If Lyakhovich would
have been able to make the bell, he probably would have won the fight,
even with the knock down. That gives you an idea of how poorly
conditioned; both of these men seemed to be. One writer called this
fight “tactically thrilling”, just for the record, he also believes we
are winning the war in Iraq, and gas prices are just right. Hasim
Rachman made a very telling statement after Maskaev caught him late, and
knocked him out earlier this year. When asked why there were not any
good American heavyweights, Rahman replied very honestly, and very
candidly. “We have become lazy, and complacent.” Briggs admitted that he
was not in the best shape for this fight.
This was the biggest fight of his life,
and he was not in the best shape? What does that tell us? In this
writers mind is says that Rahman is 100% right about American
Heavyweights, and that when an opportunity to fight for a title comes
along, you should be ready. I sensed no shame or disgrace for not being
ready, only an “oh well what can you do?” kind of attitude.
Considering Briggs had done absolutely
nothing to earn his title shot, except be with Don King, and Serguei
Lyakhovich did not do a whole lot to try to keep his title, except “wait
out” a victory, maybe clearing the way for another guy is not such a bad
idea. If Briggs holds this title past one defense, I will be shocked.
Maybe he can reach 300 lbs for his next fight, and battle another King
Giant Nikolay Valuev, or maybe just a good old fashioned apple pie
eating contest. Only in America, right?
Mike Cassell
Editor
www.philaboxingreport.com
www.920espn.com
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