This author didn't buy Brigg's jive.......till talking a good fight
But Briggs lost title without putting up much of a battle
By BERNARD FERNANDEZ
fernanb@phillynews.com
New WBO heavyweight champ Sultan Ibragimov gets a lift.
Associated Press
New WBO heavyweight champ Sultan Ibragimov gets a lift.
ATLANTIC CITY - And then there were none.
Sultan Ibragimov's start-to-finish pasting of a statue named Shannon Briggs Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall gave the Russian southpaw a unanimous-decision victory and the WBO version of the heavyweight title. It also meant another clean sweep of the four most widely recognized heavyweight championships for fighters from the former Soviet Union, a monopoly interrupted last Nov. 4 in Phoenix when Briggs, from Brooklyn, N.Y., erased a deficit on the judges' scorecards by stopping then-WBO titlist Sergei Liakhovich, of Belarus, in the 12th and final round.
A few of the 5,132 spectators (less than half of capacity) who were in the house came equipped with American or Russian flags, ostensibly for waving, but it was soon apparent that any vestiges of the Cold War had evaporated. A good thing, too. If heavyweight boxing were the tipping factor in a figurative global conflict between present or former superpowers, U.S. fight fans would now be cowering before the forces of the onetime Evil Empire.
How bad was it?
The boos began in the first minute of the first round and continued throughout. And, despite someone's effort to get a "USA! USA!" chant going in Round 3, presumably to stir the lethargic champion into action, it - and Briggs - went nowhere.
Even some of the bearers of Old Glory became so disillusioned by Briggs' lack of effort that two guys, their U.S. flags now furled, were participating in a different chant - "Shannon [stinks]! Shannon [stinks]!" - after a fight that might not have killed boxing, but again put it on the critical list.
Briggs' sole highlight came in the first round, when he landed a straight right that momentarily sent Ibragimov stumbling backward. But Briggs (48-5-1, 42 KOs) was unwilling or unable to follow up, and Ibragimov (21-0-1, 17 KOs) - who bears a startling resemblance to "Flintstones" character Barney Rubble - gained confidence as it began to dawn on him that his 273-pound opponent could barely move and wouldn't throw punches.
Yabba dabba do, indeed.
The decision was a formality, or at least should have been. Judge Lynne Carter, of Philadelphia, had Ibragimov winning on a near-shutout, 119-109, which matched the Daily News card. Don Trella had it nearly as wide for the new champ at 117-111, but the third judge, Luis Rivera, inexplicably had Ibragimov up by just 115-113.
Limited as Ibragimov is, there was no doubt he had kicked, uh, Briggs' asthma.
At the postfight press conference, Briggs, 35, tossed out alibis with far more vigor than he had tossed punches in the ring. Most dealt with his asthma, which he always cites as the reason for any underwhelming performance.
But you have to give the man credit. When it comes to spin-doctoring and putting a pretty face on an ugly evening, Briggs always has been in a class by himself.
Refusing to give Ibragimov even a smidgeon of credit, Briggs - who said he might quit boxing to go to Hollywood and become an actor - told so many tall tales that you half-expected his nose to begin to grow, like Pinocchio's.
"No excuses," he said, which contradicted everything he would then say. "I came to the fight wounded and I still felt that I won.
"I thought you had to beat the champion bad enough to get the belt. All [Ibragimov] did was run."
Briggs then said he thought he was the greatest fighter ever, a whopper of the first magnitude, because he had fought for such a long time with a debilitating disease.
Briggs did postpone this bout from its originally announced March 10 date because of a shortness of breath during training. He said he had not had another asthma attack, but was diagnosed with a case of walking pneumonia.
So why did he proceed with the bout if, as he claimed, he still was feeling the lingering effects of his respiratory condition?
"Pulling out again was not an option," he explained. "One, I have to feed my family. [Briggs' purse was $1.8 million.] Two, the politics involved. I was told the TV networks wouldn't put me on again if I pulled out of this fight. They [Ibragimov's promoters] threatened to sue me and [the WBO] would have stripped me."
So, if what he was saying were true, Briggs - who had vowed in the prefight hype to "decapitate" Ibragimov - accepted his seven-figure payday under pretenses.
Briggs might or might not have had walking pneumonia, but the fans, both in the arena and those who paid the $29.95 pay-per-view subscription price, came away with the boogie-woogie blues. *
