‘The 4 Horsemen’: Last Heavyweight Title Claimed By Another Russian!!! The last U.S. Heavyweight Champion fell victim to yet another member of the former Soviet Repuplic, Sultan Ibrigamov (21-0-17KO’s) in Atlantic City on Saturday night. Shannon Briggs (48-5-1-42KO’s) was by far the bigger man, outweighing his opponent by nearly 50lbs but in the end, the size may well have worked as more of a liability as opposed to a victim as the huge heavyweight was outworked and failed to keep pace with the smaller opponent. Contributing to the weight and perhaps conditioning issue was the fact that Briggs had complications throughout camp with asthma which has plagued him throughout his career. During camp he missed slightly more than two weeks and allegedly forced to fight by promoter Don King despite still feeling effects from Pneumonia which originally caused the bout to be postponed. Shannon Briggs landed his fair share of shots throughout the match but the 9th round proved to be too much as Sultan staggered the former champ against the rope with a series of shots that he would never over come. Final scores on the judges scorecards were 119-109, 117-111, and 115-113. What happens next for the former U.S. Heavyweight Champ remains to be seen but in the post fight press conference he did state that he will not be retiring. All four Heavyweight Championship belts are now held by members of the former Soviet Republic.
Briggs Falls To Ibrigamov!!!
Posted by Tim Starks on Jun 3, 2007 08:09
