Shannon Briggs has revealed the biggest puncher that he ever faced.
Briggs, who was known to have ‘packed a punch’ himself, fought on 68 occasions as a professional, picking up 60 victories along the way with 53 of these coming via knockout.
He became the WBO heavyweight champion when he defeated Siarhei Liakhovich back in November 2006, stopping the Belarusian in the 12th and final round of their bout at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
Briggs would lose his crown just seven months later however, suffering a unanimous decision defeat to Russia’s Sultan Ibragimov when they clashed at Boardwalk Hall in the summer of 2007.
After facing a number of hard-hitting heavyweight throughout the course of his professional career, Briggs once revealed the one opponent that actually hit him the hardest, revealing in an interview with KO Digest that the late great George Foreman‘s punching power was ‘bone breaking’.
“Oh man, he hit so hard I couldn’t speak for two weeks. He knocked me out in the seventh round and hit me with another punch that woke me back up. I never felt anything like it, it was like bone breaking. I was like, “man, I’ve got to do this” because my back was against the wall. What, I was just gonna get knocked out like everybody else? No, man. That ain’t in me.”
Foreman faced Briggs in what would go on to be the final ring appearance of his storied professional career, suffering a controversial majority decision defeat to ‘The Cannon’ in their non-title bout back in November 1997.
‘Big George’ announced his second and final retirement from boxing shortly afterwards, following on from him becoming the oldest world heavyweight champion in history, a record that remains unbroken for just over thirty years.