The only way this fight was fixed was if Lyakhovich was supposed to let Briggs hit him in the face. Sergei didn't take a 'phony' punch and go down; Briggs him him with several hard shots to the head throughout the fight, and in the 12th round Lyakhovich ate a lot of hard punches.
I think if they were looking to remove the Europeans from the ranks by fixing fights, Valuev would have gone down to Monte Barrett.
I have no doubt that many are very irritated with the way things are in boxing right now, and most would definitely like to see the trend reversed, but I don't think the fix is in - yet.
I ranked the four of them this way: 1) W. Klitschko; 2) S. Lyakhovich; 3) Valuev / Maskaev. I was surprised that Briggs beat Lyakhovich, but because of his size and power Briggs always has a chance for the KO. I don't think Wlad would be drawn into some kind of macho-man bomb throwing contest with him; Wlad's punch output and power are (IMO) vastly superior to Lyakhovich, and I think he would ultimately KO Briggs.
But I don't think Briggs is a good matchup for Maskaev, or perhaps even Valuev. Both of those guys get hit too much to trade shots with Briggs.
There are still many intriguing matchups out there, without having to force the Europeans to fight each other. Toney is still hanging around, begging to be KTFO; Sam Peter is in the mix, Brock, and now Briggs. All four could lose to any of the remaining European heavyweights, so I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.
I'd like to see Briggs v Sam Peter!
Edited by: White Shogun