Former two-time heavyweight champion Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs) was a recent honorary guest of MLB’s Miami Marlins. Briggs is a native of Brownsville, New York, but has lived in South Florida for the last 20 years. He has now thrown out the opening pitch for the Marlins in three different decades (2000s, 2010s, and 2020s).
Briggs, 51, also announced that a January boxing exhibition showdown between him and former UFC world champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is in the works – followed by MMA bout of the same. Briggs also stated the two are putting together a podcast prior to their proposed showdowns where both boxing and MMA will be discussed. He was brief on how he sees the result in both proposed bouts. “I am knocking him out twice,” declared Briggs.
Geeez I had no idea I was a few months older than Briggs. The man was fun and exciting at at times.
Let’s go chump!
Too bad Briggs never got the fight vs Haye or Wlad years back when he started the Lets go Champ tour. Briggs knocking out Haye would have been a classic.
Briggs fighting Haye would be more at Briggs’ speed. Briggs would have the upper hand with power and size. On the other hand, Wlad would have beat Briggs on the outside using the jab and timing that right cross. Wlad’s boxing IQ was a tad higher than Briggs.
Scoob-Only a tad?
Hate would’ve been too fast and elusive for Briggs. Wlad would’ve beaten him also but it would’ve been exciting given the fact Wlad had a suspect chin. Vitali absolutely punished Briggs, gave him a broken orbital bone and broken nose. I love Briggs though, cool guy.
Just fun watching both guys..Briggs is quite entertaining…not really interested in a fight against each other..,moreso interested in the shows both promote together and the comedic interviews with both….
Better hope Darrol Wilson doesn’t show up.
Darroll did damage that night! Night of the Heavyweights!
If you desire to see any Briggs vs Jackson fight then you have my sympathies.
I get the feeling these fights are more for promotion of their joint venture in media than any kind of serious competition. They’ll still fight it out, as both guys seem to have that dedication to winning, but it won’t be some kind of hardcore exhibition.
I’ve met Shannon Briggs before… I think he’ll do very well as a sports talk guy. He’s very charismatic and certainly knows his stuff when it comes to boxing. He used to appear on some Sirius XM shows periodically.
Briggs is a huge steamy pos that deserves to be a washed up bum with wasted talent. He beat up a few tomato cans on espn in the 90s before blowing his career on HBO to a Tomato can that hit back lol
53 Tomato Cans?
I would have liked to see him and Klitchko go at it. However, I also wanna state that Briggs was given a gift decision against Foreman, he lost that fight.
Briggs definitely kept things interesting in the heavyweight division for a long time. Prolly one of the biggest hype jobs in heavyweight history, but dont forget, he held the mythological “linear” title after beating George Foreman in 1997, I believe, then briefly held the WBO title in 2006.
Briggs knocked out Siarhei Liakhovich in the 12th round to win that WBO belt. That fight ended with literally 1 second left on the clock….2:59 of the 12th, and Briggs was behind heading into the final round. He lost that belt in his first defense to Ibragimov.
Briggs did hold the linear belt for a minute after the MD over Foreman, but he got a gift of a decision in that one. There’s an interesting write-up on boxrec regarding possible corruption around that fight.
Briggs top wins appear to be: a MD over 48 year old Foreman that nobody seemed to think he won, a KO7 over a 44 year old Ray Mercer which had kind of an odd looking ending, and that last second win over Liakhovich. Not sure what comes after those three if you were to make a Top 5 wins list for him. Maybe Sherman Williams? Dicky Ryan? Fun fighter to watch for sure, but that’s an awfully padded record Briggs has…
I didn’t see the fight with Foreman, but I remember there was some controversy. I remember thinking at the time “wow, his biggest win is a controversial decision to a 48 year old”. He also drew with Frans Botha in 1998. When I say he kept things interesting, I mostly meant outside the ring with his mouth, but in the ring as well. Rember he rocked Lennox Lewis early on in a title fight, eventually getting stopped in the 5th round.
“When I say he kept things interesting, I mostly meant outside the ring with his mouth, but in the ring as well.”
Agreed. He definitely kept kept things interesting in and out of the ring. He didn’t have a whole lot of great wins, but he made for action fights, and managed to legitimately win a belt vs. Liakhovich.
One of the fights involving Briggs that sticks out in my mind is the one vs. Melton Bowen. Came out fast as always and knocked Bowen stiff in under a minute.
Briggs got a gift against Foreman…Foreman was on the verge of knocking Briggs out then Briggs got on this bicycle…and start running…and won a decision doing that….Foremen was hitting Briggs with right hands until the end..watch the fight.,. Briggs was on the verge of getting KOed ….google the fight
..,.Foreman retired after that fight…Foreman realized that everyone would just throw quick combos and run….watch Holifield v Foreman…that was a good fight
..even had the great Holifield running in the last round…Briggs was a decent heavyweight though
Foreman beat him every round it was a complete robbery and started investigation at how corrupt things were and it showed Lewis knocked him out in first defense a loud mouth who never did anything in boxing except run his mouth
I like Briggs. He was explosive and enertaining. Yes, he talks, but so does many fighters looking for fame and money. Talented guy though!
However, he was given a lesson in the Olympics from Cuba…
Bigbrad-Briggs was great for boxing. He understood well the most important element of professional boxing-Don’t be boring, in or out of the ring. He had the look, the physique, the mouth, the KO punch. I guess ultimately he didn’t really have the skill to consistently hang and bang with the elite. Or maybe it was the fact he suffered from asthma. It always baffled me how somebody with asthma could make a career out of boxing. I do have to correct you on one thing: Briggs never fought in the Olympics. You are correct though. I think he was schooled by Cuban great Felix Savon in the amateurs, but it wasn’t in the Olympics.
LETS GO CHAMP!! I was wondering what happened to him. He and Rampage have been talking about fighting for some time. The build-up was great, I’m sure the fight will be eh but the podcast I will definitely subscribe. Those two a magic together.
Let’s go champ!
I would have loved to see Briggs against Brewster.
Shannon would have early success until sleepy time. LB KO’s Shannon midway.
I miss those exciting days of the heavyweight division. When top fighters would actually go though with fighting each other..now we have the same 5 people running circles around each other because of thier promotors. What happened to fighting more then once everyone 16 months. what happened taking a fight less then 5000000.00 because you were hungry,maybe its just me but the HW had really been in a sad state for quite some time.
Shannon weird antics to get a fight with Wladimir Klitschko did not get him nada….
That made me think he was a psycho. Publicly calling out and getting in his face if you see him out in public is one thing, but to stalk him and harass him wherever he goes is a whole different ball game. But like I said-he always kept things ineresting.
Can’t believe Briggs is only 51. Damn, it means I’m getting old as well. I met him as an amateur when I fought out of the 110 PAL in Queens and ran into him a few times at Warriors gym in Hollywood while training. Prediction if the fight takes place:
Briggs knocks Rampage out in boxing and Rampage kicks the sh*t out of Briggs’ legs and makes him quit.