By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Former heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs is looking forward to an exhibition bout with Hall of Famer Mike Tyson and says he will be in terrific condition.
“Me and Mike Tyson are from the same neighborhood in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Mike has always been an inspiration to me,” Briggs told Peter Maniatis. “I’m looking forward to having an exhibition match later this year and we are going to shock the world. I’m looking forward to being in my best shape. I’m in decent shape now, but in the next three months, I’ll be in phenomenal shape training under Jesse Robinson.
“Ten years ago I was suffering from depression, I was overweight taking prescription drugs and was 403 pounds in weight. I was depressed and suicidal. I was lucky to come across cannabis as an alternative drug and I lost 168 pounds and came back to boxing. I am now looking forward to the boxing match with Mike Tyson.”
Boy, gets confusing after a while hearing fighters say “it’s a done deal” (a while back) and now it’s simply foreplay to something that may not happen? Which is it?
I’m really confused as to why anyone should even care. While the talent level in the sport is dreadful, and match making is solely based on lining up the largest payday possible, I’m still not desperate enough to want to see Tyson step into the ring again. Or Holyfield either.
If this happened would probably be a scripted sparring session like the Mayweather-Mcgregor clown show.
I remember back in 1999, Briggs was hyping his fight fight with Frans Botha on the Howard Stern Show. He would call all throughout the week of the fight talking about how he was going to destroy Botha and this and that. He had solid rapport with Howard and Robin and was pretty amusing. Stern asked him to call back on Monday after the fight. The fight ended in a draw and when Briggs called the show the following Monday, Stern said “Hey, sorry I can’t have you on my show, you can’t even beat a white guy!” and hung up on him! I thought that was pretty funny.
Let’s go champ! You still chasing Klitschko around town too?