Shannon Briggs vs. Rob Calloway Briggs the last American born heavyweight
Shannon Briggs is no stranger to having to start his career over - it’s something that he’s done several times in his lengthy career. The former WBO heavyweight champion is looking to resurrect his career once again as he prepares to take on Rob Calloway at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia this Friday night.
Briggs holds a distinction that many U.S. fight fans find discouraging - he is the last American-born fighter to hold the lineal world heavyweight title. He went into retirement after losing his WBO heavyweight crown to Sultan Ibragimov in June 2007 but came back to boxing in December 2009 with a fight against Marcus McGee. He initially won the fight by a first round knockout, but that decision was changed to a no-contest after Briggs tested positive for a banned substance and was suspended for 90 days. Briggs claims that the substance was medicine used to treat his asthma.
At 38, Briggs (50-5-1, 44 KOs) knows that he has limited time left to earn another title shot, and he has built a schedule that is incredibly active. The fight against Calloway will be his third bout in six weeks and his second fight in two weekends. He resumed his comeback on April 13 with a first-round knockout of Rafael Pedro and continued it last Friday night by stopping Dominique Alexander in the first round. Briggs decision to fight so soon after his last bout is almost unheard of in modern boxing for a recognized fighter and created a unique situation - because Virginia state athletic commission rules require that a boxer rest for seven days between fights, technically, Briggs’ bout with Calloway won’t start until 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.
However, it wouldn’t be surprising if Briggs is able to make quick work of Calloway and let the fans be able to get home early enough to get a good night’s sleep. Calloway (70-11-2, 57 KOs) might be a game fighter, but the reality is that he is a cruiserweight who will be hard pressed to match the power of a knockout artist like Briggs. Even more disturbing is that Calloway has lost three of his last four fights - with all losses coming as a cruiserweight and coming via an early stoppage. If Calloway can’t handle taking punches from cruiserweights, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where he’ll be able to stand up to the early onslaught brought by Briggs.
There is a way for Calloway to win the 10-round fight - survive early and thrive late. Briggs has certainly brought the knockout power early in the bouts during his comeback, but that also means that he hasn’t had to go late into fights at test his aging body and legs. If Briggs attacks Calloway early in hopes of landing a big early knockout and fails, there’s always the chance that Briggs could punch himself out and be gassed in the later rounds. Although he has mainly fought B-level opponents in his career, Calloway is still a cagy veteran who should be able to take advantage of a tiring Briggs later in the fight - if it gets that far.
While Briggs might not be a spring chicken and is in his third fight in six weeks, there’s still no reason to think that he doesn’t have more than enough to handle a game journeyman like Calloway, especially when he’s facing an opponent who will likely be giving up at least 50 pounds to the former champion. Briggs is a 1-to-33 favorite in the fight for a reason - he’s a former world champion who has fought some of the biggest names in heavyweight boxing (including beating George Foreman and Ray Mercer while taking on Lennox Lewis, Jameel McLine and Francois Botha). The recent rush of fights shouldn’t be a major concern - he hardly broke a sweat in his last two fights and they essentially turned into glorified training sessions.
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