Shannon Briggs Statement By Shannon Briggs Thank you all for your concern. I came to the hospital saturday night strictly as a precautionary measure, and after several tests the Dr.’s concluded that there were no severe head injuries. I am staying in the hospital to further examine an injury to my left bicep that I suffered in the first round. Unfortunately, the injury kept me from fully executing my fight plan. Not to take anything away from a brilliant performance by Vitali Klitchko Saturday night, had I had not injured my arm early on, who knows how the fight would have concluded. We are grateful to the fine doctors and people of Hamburg for the excellent care and support they’ve given me thus far, and as a life long asthmatic sufferer I’m truly grateful to Dr. Charles Hensley and his homeopathic formulation Zivair that helped make it possible to go 12 rounds and compete for the WBC title. As witnessed Saturday night and throughout my career, I never gave in even when my breathing was out of order or any injury kept me from being 100%. Despite prior reports, throughout the contest my trainer Herman Caicedo wanted to stop the fight, but I made it clear that stopping the fight was not an option. Thank you for all of your support and hopefully I showed you the heart of a lion and the perseverance of a champion.
Sounds like an evil german nazi ninja assasin broke into Shannon's hotel room in the middle of the night and injured his bicep in his sleep!!! Damn you germany! I say Briggs/Klitschko II in good ole United States this time around. Away from the evil germany and their bullshit. They stopped their fight early just as Shannon was coming on at the end of 12 rounds they stop it??? what the fuck is that ?
That's good. Briggs took a pounding that put him hospital under supervision, but can remember precisely what happened during each of minutes he was beaten for. That's good. By round 6 he didn't even know what his name was, never mind what round he hurt his arm in. Maybe that pillar of academia, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, took notes, in between screaming expletives at Klitschko.
that has to be my least favourite phrase from any boxer - "I'm not making any excuses, but...." go fuck yourself
This is what get's me. Vitali quit to save his health and his future and it took him years to get his reputation back. Briggs stands in tough and is called a loser. I don't get it. Sorry.:dunno:
I don't want to...but <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h5Ka1nUOE1A?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h5Ka1nUOE1A?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
Nothing to get. I have always given Klitschko a pass for the Byrd fight. I cringe when I see people call him, "a bitch, quitter," etc. for that.
I'm not being critical of Briggs for that. If that wasn't clear, let me clarify. I'm criticising him for being absolutely delusional. As per usual with this man, his reach once again exceeds his grasp. He still believes he can beat Klitschko --- still believes if things had turned out just a little differently, & he hadn't run headlong into some bad luck, he could've won. He effectively says as much right there. It's cringe-worthy --- he couldn't beat Klitschko with a sledgehammer. Ditto for his, "two-time HW world champion...with asthma" routine. He's got to face up to the man in the mirror --- & that man is something far, far lesser than what he currently sees. Pride is all well & good, but not at the expense of maturity & realism. Everything I've ever heard from Briggs in regards to himself is completely devoid of those two qualities.
Fighters make excuses for themselves all the time. After that it is a question of degree- to what degree are they deluded. You have to be a bit deluded to fight in the first place. Every fighter does it, just to different degrees.
They should have stopped this fight in about round 8-9 This was a mismatch the moment it was announced. After a few rounds of taking a beating what did Briggs show? He made his point of having heart and determination. But his corner should have stopped it. I heard he ended up with several fractures in his face including under both eyes. All that shit wasn't necessary if the ref or his corner would have done their job.
Briggs plan was working to perfection. The plan was to tire vitaly out for 12 rounds and attack in the 13th. Evil germans stopped it too early
Shannon met with the Chancellor Angel Merkel early in the evening, she shook his hand, and when Shannon was getting wrapped later he noticed a strange pain in his biceps.
I agree with this take. In fact, just about the only thing that could really sour the respect and praise Briggs deserves for the toughness & heart he showed in this fight is the kind of verbal diarrhea he spewed afterward. When I read what he said, I actually shifted my opinion of him despite the punishment he indeed endured bravely. Why is it so hard to simply admit that you did the best you were capable of doing, and regardless of being in decent condition with no maladies, you lost badly? Everyone already saw this, and knows this, so it is not some sort of shocking admission. It definitely detracts from other potentially admirable traits when a fighter does this. I would add also that I understand why young, perhaps previously undefeated fighters might make these sorts of excuses after a drubbing. In that position, with a long career ahead of them, it is a basic human drive to rationalize and explain away a loss so that mentally you have a grip on it & can get your confidence back. It is like stabilizing the psyche so you can move on and keep fighting. I think some young and immature fighters actually need this sort of excuse-making so they can get back into the ring again. But for Briggs? This is probably his last fight. His best years are behind him. He has already lost multiple times. There is no reason to come up with absurd excuses, especially such cliche, weak, and obviously false ones. This becomes, as you pointed out, truly delusional, immature, and I would add embarrassing and insulting as a prizefighter. Personally I simply CANNOT like a guy who makes these sorts of totally absurd excuses. Fighters like Briggs need to realize that they will win respect and be viewed better by EVERYONE if they keep it real, even though that means admitting their flaws or shortcomings. Puking out yet ANOTHER "I hurt my shoulder/tore my bicep/couldn't breath/broke my finger/strained my whatever/ate bad oysters" excuse not only doesn't preserve any respect or dignity, it completely erodes it, and makes people like me really disgusted with fighters like Shannon Briggs.
Briggs has more courage than just about any fighter I have ever seen. He took an ass kicking that would have killed a normal man pretty quickly. Vitali remained wary of Briggs' power until the end, which is why he didn't try putting a hook behind the right hand to try and finish him off.
I felt Klitschko was looking to put Briggs away, but couldn't get it done. I wasn't sure at first, but having viewed snippets of it in replay, I think he went for the KO but just could not produce.
Maybe. His right hand must have been sore from hitting the head so often, and he was making sure he wasn't catching Briggs on the top of the skull, as he would have surely broken it the way he was winging in there.
When Vitali is going for the KO, like he was with Kevin Johnson, you can see it, he becomes agitated and starts to throw ridiculous feints in the hope of landing the big one. With Briggs, he just seemed happy to keep hitting him. Thankfully his lack of concussive power meant that Briggs only sustained a concussion.:TLC:
You might be right, & I'm sure you've watched more, all-in-all, of Klitschko than I have, so you likely know him better. As I say, I had the feeling on review he was attempting a KO --- some of the shots had definite venom behind them (though as you say, he is not the biggest of punchers), but it's certainly plausible.
