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I thought it was bad in Philly, when we
snowballed Santa Claus, and when we 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 Sergei Liakhovich 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. Liakhovich, who gave up 20 lbs. 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. Had Lyakhovich 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 Rahman 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 writer's mind it 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
Sergei Liakhovich 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
fighter, giant Nicolai Valuev, or maybe they can just
have a good old
fashioned apple pie eating contest. Only in
America, right?
Mike Cassell
Editor
www.philadelphiaboxingreport.com
11-13-2008 |
