Ibragimov Outpoints Lethargic Briggs for Title
Ibragimov, outweighed by 52 pounds, fought a smart, tactical fight throughout. Using his advantages in hand speed and conditioning, Ibragimov kept winning rounds and the only question was whether he could make it to the final bell without getting caught by a big right from Briggs. Fortunately for Ibragimov, the sleepwalking Briggs was too busy gasping for air to throw any combinations and was never a threat.
All three judges scored the fight for Ibragimov: 119-109 (accurate), 117-111 (reasonable) and 115-113 (a joke). Judge Luis Rivera, who found five rounds to give to Briggs, needs to find a new line of work. No punch stats were available but it would have been fascinating to see just how few punches Briggs threw and landed over 12 rounds.
The only thing more predictable than Briggs' low punch output was his post-fight excuse: asthma. Briggs has always seemed more interested in playing the role of heavyweight champ than in actually doing what it takes to become and stay champ. If his asthma is really this bad (and we have no reason to doubt him), then perhaps it's time for Briggs to do everyone - including himself - a favor and hang up his gloves.
Ibragimov's win puts all four heavyweight alpha-belts back in the hands of fighters from the former Soviet Union (joining Wladimir Klitschko, Oleg Maskaev and Ruslan Chagaev). Don't be shocked if Ibragimov's first title defense is against ... Evander Holyfield.
Comments
I really do feel sorry for Shannon, he used to be quite dangerous when he combined pretty decent reflexes with punching power and a 225 lbs 6′4” tall strong body… Now, asthma or pneumonia or age, he couldn’t fight at 273 lbs and since he couldn’t come down, the scale did tell the tale.
These guys from former U.S.S.R.are bigger, stronger, smarter and still get put down by most of american media. Jim lampley, get used to it!
Sultan was not bigger or stronger than Briggs, if he wasn’t smarter he wouldn’t win just like Liakhovich but then if Floyd wasn’t smarter he wouldn’t beat Hoya or Pavlik to Miranda …
Fransico….baby, what’s good… i see you had to break it down for another unlearned one…..fighters transcend race…..they understand that gladiators,warriors, or what ever glorious name you chose to use know it’s the persons will.. not their race that inspires greatness…many fighters from every walk of life admire other fighters from every walk of life….ROCKY MARCIANO said JOE LOUIS was his favorite fighter and inspired him….KHAOSAI GALAXY loved MIKE TYSON…….both was ko-ing everyone they fought…….AZUMA NELSON ADMIRED HIS CONQUEROR ON HIS COME UP…SALVADOR SANCHEZ……….and after his death azuma declared salvador the greatest ever up until this day……..and here’s an interesting note you ask any RUSSIAN fighter who was the greatest fighter they’ve seen growing up the response is 95% ALI….wow no race problem their….what i’ve discovered is mostly american whites have a problem with other races success in an area they may try to dominate but when you speak with a caucasian of another country they dont go on race they go on the fighters ability and last fight…hmmmmmmm my man fransico he’s obviously of latin lover origin…….and i feel he’s one of the more insightful commentors of fights and i’m a algonquin(that’s native american too you) and nubian…….i admire him no race issue their..so here’s the hint join the elite surpass race get into the quality of the human not the color………because we all come from africa anyways……i learned that from a german scientist….look it up!
NOW on the fight….Shannon is a lost cause he has all the talent in the world just no discipline…or real belief in his self….you can’t sleep walk and think i’ll just catch him in the 12th…….as big as shannon is as fast and strong…..he just…mmmmmmm he’s a lost cause… i feel the klit (lmao i said klit) will take all three belts and unify the titles………..right now we just don’t have any exciting heavies in america….are guys are old the ones we loved and the new ones well……they lack that mental toughness the fighters of the 90’s-80’s and especially the 70’s had……but fear not ye american hopefuls out of the darkness a new fighter will emerge hopefully he’ll be….as swaggerish as me……and the fransico one………
Noir my brother, thnx man, wish to be in peace with all my brothers, the native americans who are the 1st americans by the way when the spanish and the portuguese like me landed on you, of course I love the russians who are european like me and the africans since I was born in Africa and the Asians since my origin is from Asia, and so on… The problem here is that Briggs was not human at all, he was like the green monster Hulk at 273 lbs! What the hell, how can you have asthma, eating disorders a la Oprah, pneumonia and still fight? Shannon was beautiful at 225, now he just couldn’t throw punches and age is not an excuse either, look at The Real Deal, well, Vander is not human too, he’s a GOD and would beat the s*** out of Wlad, Brewster should do it for him anyway and it’ll come down to him, Peter and Commander Vander… Again I take this opportunity to embrace you, Ken and every american, please remember latin-afro-american “Chico” Corrales, peace
Noirno,good looking on bringing the attention back where it needs to be, and thats heavyweight unification. Im tired of all this BS and jive talking by these promotional agencies and main boxing organizations about how they are working out unification bouts. Im calling on a boycott of all particpants who are not giving the fans the unification bouts they want to see; Hbo, showtime, PPv, all promotional companies. Pass the word along, threaten to cancel your subscriptions of these channels; tell your buddies. Write to all respective boxing outlets; we need to have a unified champion. It will bring clarity to the heavyweight division and the average fan will know who the champ is. Im not trying to play the nationality card,but we all know that if 3or even 4 of the current heavy champs were American; white, black or Etc, we would have seen heavyweight uni months ago. Noirnotivibe also had another good point about the upcoming prospects in the American heavyweight division, and that is they are supposed to be the next big thing and then they get beat. If the heavy division has no talent, then why are alls these prospects getting beat on. Oh, Fransico Evander will get destroyed by all the current heavys. Let him go man, he had his time. Plus i’m sure you have heard of the recent steriod allegations toward Evander about how he may have taken steriods in some of his bouts; that alone has modified my whole viewpoint on his career. Now i know why in some fights he fought like a warrior and others he fougt like a dud. Peter, Klitschko are the future, especially Wlad, he is a hybrid like Lewis, a big man that can move and punch. Anyway Viva la heavy unification; fight and advocate it with words and the pen, or else who knows when we will be able to enjoy a heavyweight unification; come on the anticipation would be great.
Noirno,good looking on bringing the attention back where it needs to be, and thats heavyweight unification. Im tired of all this BS and jive talking by these promotional agencies and main boxing organizations about how they are working out unification bouts. Im calling on a boycott of all particpants who are not giving the fans the unification bouts they want to see; Hbo, showtime, PPv, all promotional companies. Pass the word along, threaten to cancel your subscriptions of these channels; tell your buddies. Write to all respective boxing outlets; we need to have a unified champion. It will bring clarity to the heavyweight division and the average fan will know who the champ is. Im not trying to play the nationality card,but we all know that if 3or even 4 of the current heavy champs were American; white, black or Etc, we would have seen heavyweight uni months ago. Noirnotivibe also had another good point about the upcoming prospects in the American heavyweight division, and that is they are supposed to be the next big thing and then they get beat. If the heavy division has no talent, then why are alls these prospects getting beat on. Oh, Fransico Evander will get destroyed by all the current heavys. Let him go man, he had his time. Plus i’m sure you have heard of the recent steriod allegations toward Evander about how he may have taken steriods in some of his bouts; that alone has modified my whole viewpoint on his career. Now i know why in some fights he fought like a warrior and others he fougt like a dud. Peter, Klitschko are the future, especially Wlad, he is a hybrid like Lewis, a big man that can move and punch. Anyway Viva la heavy unification. Pass and advocate the message with words, or else who knows when we will all able to enjoy a heavyweight unification; come on the anticipation would be great.
LOOKS LIKE BRIGGS WANTED TO LOSE OR THE RUSSIAN MAFIA WANTED HIM TO. YOU CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T THROW A PUNCH EXCEPT FOR WILLIE PEP.
I agree with BillyBob, the fact that a guy with asthma, pneumonia, 35 plus and 273 lbs had a deadline to defend is title is the indication that the mobster agents are working in da back stage, the promotional groups, the television contracts, the Casinos, it make s me wanna puke! Briggs knew he wouldn’t throw punches and would come out empty handed and most probably finished. Now, andrewK, I bet my house that unification fights are not going to take place soon, these guys wanna make money cos they fought hard for recognition and upcoming paydays, all of them, Maskaev, Chagaev, Peter, Wlad, Iggy, it’s just business just like Jermain Taylor said and PBF and ODLH proved… I’m not naive but I know one on one, Evander would probably beat all champs but possibly Wlad or Peter just cos Holy is intense, always has been and dat doesn’t have anything to do with steroids or prayers.
Sultan should be a much better champ. Shannon got lucky in the last fight to win the title. Sultan will have Brock #9 or Holyfield (not ranked) and not even Ray Austin (not ranked) whom he drew with as an alternative. Let’s hope he fights one of the other champs.
Ken Hissner, how r u doin, fine I hope, man, Holyfield is the number 9 ranked hwt in the world by the wbc, check it out… Next for Maskaev is Peter and the winner takes on the winner of interim champion Samil Sam vs Oliver McCall. Wlad takes Brewsta and looks 4 unification fights with the wbc champ but so does his brother Vitaly so if you consider Chagaev is not going for a unification on his 1st title defense and neither will Sultan, what r u talkin about? This is business and the fans have no part in it, cappice?
Francsico the smartest business move for all champs right now would be unification. Besides Klitschko lets review the last heavy matchups: Oleg vs that guy from Africa, not televised and im sure Olege didn’t make that much money; Chagaev vs Valuev pretty big fight in europe but im sure both fighters didn’t make as much as they could have. Briggs vs Ibgv please. The point is heavyweight unification is what the fans want to see. And that will make more money for the fighters, thus the smartest business move. Valuev and his promotion company could have had a unification bout with klitschko and made tons of money. That bout would have sold everywhere, but instead he avoided Klitshcko for so long he ended up fighting a fighter that was caple of beating him, and not only did he lose his championship, he lost out on the biggest payday of his career by by not fighting Klitschko. And another thing the winner of Oleg and Peter fight Vitali Klishcko. And whoever wins out of the Oleg-Peter fight, will lose to Vitali. And another thing Fransico, I know there will probably be no unification bouts in the near future ,thats why im calling on a boycott of the boxing industry;everbody who is involved, until we see and bout with uni. And all I’m saying about Evander is these recent allegations of steriod abuse in his past career has made me rearrange him on my great list of heavyweights; he dropped a couple of spots on my list.
another thing that has made me angry lately is all the hype about this Alexander Povetikin kid, about how he has been fighting decent compitition. And also how this is uncommon for a upcoming heavyweight to do. I have seen his resume and i don’t know half the guys he has fought. All i know is his first some-what major opponent so far will be Monte Barrett. Lets end the hype about this kid; throw him to the lions, put him against somebody that is in the top 5 of any Boxing organization lists.
Andrew, gat to leave Dream Land and wake up, baby ( pardon me 4 the intimacy) but makin a case 4 the unfication of the hwt title just 2 please the fans seems that naive… Pvetkin destroyed Imamu Mayfield on the undercard of Oleg vs Ugandan Japanese Okhello in Moskow and he will go 4 the kill against Barret, no doubts about it. By da way, why are Dimitrenko and Virchis rated above Holyfield and Toney and they have not fought anyone either… The harsh reality is this, the kids come and the agents put them on prospect for a title shot, the so-called aryans go insane about the next white Tyson and then all you have is Sultans, Olegs, Ruslans and they don’t give a s*** about the white males in US. They get the paydays and so do the agents, the casinos and the broadcasting companies, we cry for meaningful fights but we still see the ones they give it to us and the show goes on. Why should you want to see a unification in the HWTs in the week Cotto meets Judah and soon Williams vs Margarito and Hatton vs Castillo? It’s pointless, I don’t give a damn if the hwt titlists are Russians, Chinese or Cubans, but I didn’t like boxing.about.com crack at Holy who is on a quest for a 5th world championship and dat doesn’t include the WBO, get it?
frans, maybe you miss understood me. Heavy unification is not the only important topic presently in boxing, but all of the above disscusions involve the heavys’so hopefully you can see my point. I guess i am partial to Klitshcko, that’s because i think the guy has loads of talent, and ever since i saw him fight Brock at MSG i think he’s the man to take the heavyweight division. Another thing my friendly nemesis, the most signifigant point you have made so far is about the month of june, cotto-judah, Hat-casti,and Marg-Wills. However, the former matchup im not so thrilled about, this is what i mean about boxing. Cotto will beat this Has-been,even if the good Judah shows up this sat. Maybe it will actually be a close fight because Judah is very mobile. However even if Judah moves Cotto will catch him, Judah will slow down later on and Cotto will have acuracy practice; Cotto destroys anything that stands in front of him. I’m not really interested in this fight. My friend asked me if i wanted to go to MSG w/ his dad and him to see the fight, i declined and made a promise to my girl to w/ her to the movies to see Spidey 3 or Piratees; i’ll youtube the fight on sunday. Anyway we should be seeing matches like Cotto-williams, Marg-Cotto, these are the fights that should be made. Another thing, what does everybody mean by all this Arayn talk in their disccusions. What does that have to do w/ anything? Promotion, Mangers? I don’t understand. I don’t care if the heavy’s are purple,black,white,yellow,chineese, i just want to see a heavy unify;and since my secret is out, preferably Klitshcko. The absolute hheavyweight champion in boxing has always been a prominent icon in the world of sports. That’s why heavy uni is imporo.
Andrewk, my new friendly nemesis, I agree the hwt Champ has always been the icon in the world of sports, from Joe Louis to Muhammad Ali and to Mike Tyson but the times r changing, this is the 21st century. Yeah, I apologize about the colour factor, we r all the same but I cannot disregard the human market which is Eastern Europe-Germany-USA and that goes for Porn, Boxing and Showbiz in general… So what can I say? The Povetkins, Dimitrenkos, Iggys, Lyakhovichs are only going to feed the mobster agents in AC and LV and nobody isn’t interested in unifications, the more the titles the most money these guys make… Briggs was always an under-achiever, yes, and Wlad is in a different class but don’t tell me you found out that against Brock in NY, man, Calvin didn’t land a punch and neither did Wlad until he was cut and came on a lil bit from the 6th on and landed that big pile driver on the boxing banker… Wlad is the only guy interested in unifications but I’m pretty sure Oliver McCall or Samil Sam will be knocking on the door of the winner out of Peter-Maskaev and the winner of Krasniqi-Thompson demanding Sultan a shot. The HWT division is condemned, there is not one dominant force there so everybody wants a piece of the cake most in opposition to the welters where there are many dominant forces and looking to collide for the one prize, believe me, pal
If Sultan can only out point a fighter that throws no punches what’s going to happen when he fights Holyfield who will throw more punches than all the Russian champs combined in a fight. Holyfield will tko Sultan.