[BOXING] Shannon Briggs says he’s received a contract for bout with Vitali Klitschko

[WTV News]

By Jason Kim: Former World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s), speaking to the BBC, said that he’s received a contract from WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s) for a bout that is expected to be taking place on October 16th in Hamburg, Germany. Klitschko, 38, has yet to confirm that the fight is taking place.

However, Klitschko has reportedly been having problems trying to line up a fight against his number #1 choice opponent former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. If that fight isn’t going to be taking place, then it sounds reasonable that the 38-year-old Klitschko might opt to fight the 38-year-old Briggs in Germany. However, this is a fight that will likely only interest diehard fans of Klitschko and his German boxing fans, because Briggs hasn’t been very active in the past three years and doesn’t have a large fan base in the United States.

Boxing fans were hoping that Klitschko would step up the level of his opposition, as he easily defeated little known Alberto Sosnowski by a 10th round TKO in his last fight in May. Before that, Klitschko beat previously undefeated American Kevin Johnson by a one-sided 12 round decision in December 2009 in a dull fight from start to finish.

Thus far, Klitschko has had five fights since making his comeback after four years of retirement in 2008, but he’s yet to have an interesting opponent. Boxing fans would like to see Vitali face WBA heavyweight champion David Haye or at the very least undefeated Odlanier Solis, the former 2004 Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist for Cuba. Klitschko would like to fight Haye, but it doesn’t appear that a fight between them will be happening soon, if ever.

Speaking to the BBC, Briggs had this to say about a fight with Klitschko: “I got the contract. I look forward to retiring a great champion. I’m the best ever. Hopefully, when I retire Vitali, I can fight David Haye at Wembley Stadium. That would be a dream come true.”

Briggs is currently ranked number #8 by the World Boxing Council, despite having fought only four 2nd tier heavyweights in the past year. Briggs has beaten three of them with one of the fights being ruled a no contest after Briggs tested positive for a banned substance. It would have been nice for Briggs to have beaten at least one upper level heavyweight in the past year so that boxing fans could see him as deserving a shot at the heavyweight title.

As it is, if Vitali ends up fighting Briggs, it’s going to look as if Klitschko is milking his title rather than going after his top challengers in the division like Solis, Tomasz Adamek and Denis Boytsov. Briggs isn’t an opponent that’s likely going to interest American boxing fans or HBO in wanting to see Klitschko fight.