Lennox Lewis vs Shannon Briggs

Lennox Lewis retained the WBC heavyweight championship and added the lineal claim by stopping Shannon Briggs in the fifth round at the Atlantic City Convention Center on March 28, 1998. Referee Frank Cappuccino intervened after 1 minute and 45 seconds, with Briggs exhausted and no longer able to defend himself properly. Lewis had been forced through an anxious opening round before his greater strength, accuracy and endurance brought a decisive conclusion. The champion weighed 243 pounds, and Briggs weighed 228 pounds. A crowd of 9,173 attended, and the contest was televised live in the United States by HBO.

Briggs received his opportunity after defeating George Foreman by a disputed majority decision four months earlier. Many at ringside believed the 48-year-old Foreman had done enough to retain his recognised position as lineal champion, but the official verdict went to Briggs. The younger New Yorker possessed quick hands and heavy punches, but his stamina and consistency had often been questioned. He had suffered his only professional defeat against Darroll Wilson in 1996, when he tired badly before being stopped in the third round. Lewis entered as a strong favourite after the emphatic first-round knockout of Andrew Golota, which had strengthened his position among the leading heavyweights.

The opening round showed why Briggs could not be treated carelessly. Lewis began behind his left jab, maintaining the distance and looking to bring his straight right hand into play. Briggs moved quickly for a man of his build and attempted to leap across the gap with hooks. During the final half-minute, he caught Lewis with a short left hand as the champion was moving backwards. Lewis was shaken and staggered towards the ropes. Briggs followed immediately, throwing heavily with both hands and driving Lewis into a corner. A right hand landed near the bell and sent the champion stumbling sideways, but he remained upright and returned to his corner under his own power.

All three judges awarded Briggs the first round. It was the challenger’s best period and the only stage at which Lewis appeared in immediate danger. Lewis recovered during the interval and resumed his work more carefully in the second. He kept the jab straighter, moved his feet after punching and prevented Briggs from setting himself for another rush. Briggs remained dangerous when he could spring forward, but his attacks were becoming easier to read. Lewis began landing the right hand to the head and struck the challenger repeatedly as he attempted to enter.

The second round was close enough for one judge to favour Briggs, but Lewis had restored order. In the third, he increased the pressure, pushing Briggs backwards with the jab and finding the target with heavier right hands. Briggs’s mouth began to bleed, and his movements became less lively. The challenger still threw occasional hooks with considerable speed, but he could no longer sustain an attack. Lewis was forcing him to reset after every exchange and making him expend energy merely to reach punching range.

By the fourth round, the difference in condition was becoming pronounced. Briggs’s hands were lower, and his feet had slowed, while Lewis remained balanced and increasingly willing to stand close enough to punch in combinations. The champion drove Briggs towards the ropes and landed a sequence of blows, finishing with a right hand which sent the challenger down. Briggs rose and indicated that he could continue, but he had little time to recover before Lewis resumed the attack.

Lewis did not rush wildly. He used the jab to place Briggs, brought over the right hand and followed with hooks as the challenger retreated. Briggs was caught by another heavy combination and went down for the second time in the round. He again beat the count and survived to the bell, but the round was scored 10–7 for Lewis by all three judges. Briggs returned to his corner tired, marked and plainly weakened by the sustained punishment.

The fifth began with Lewis seeking the finish. Briggs attempted to hold his ground, but his reactions were too slow to cope with the champion’s straight punches. A heavy right hand put him down for the third time in the contest after 1 minute 9 seconds. Briggs lay flat on his back for several seconds before rising at the count of eight. Cappuccino examined him and allowed the fight to continue.

Lewis stepped forward and continued to land. Briggs tried to answer with a wide left hook, missed and fell to the canvas from the force of his own movement and exhaustion. Cappuccino did not rule it a knockdown, but the fall demonstrated that the challenger’s legs were no longer supporting him properly. When Briggs rose, Lewis immediately drove him backwards with another attack. The challenger was taking punches without returning them and was unable to escape from the ropes. Cappuccino stepped between the men and stopped the fight at 1 minute 45 seconds.

The official cards after four completed rounds had Lewis ahead by scores of 39–35, 39–35 and 38–36. Terry O’Connor and Anek Hongtongkam had given Briggs only the opening round, while John Stewart also awarded him the second. The scoring reflected the sharp change in the contest. Briggs had briefly placed the champion in difficulty, but Lewis had won the next three rounds through the greater authority and consistency of his punching.

Lewis earned a reported purse of $4 million, while Briggs received approximately $1 million. The champion praised Briggs’s courage afterwards and acknowledged that the challenger had struck him hard in the opening round. Briggs admitted that Lewis’s reach had been more difficult to overcome than expected. His early success had depended upon speed and surprise, but once Lewis adjusted the distance, Briggs had no second method available.

The performance was not faultless. Lewis had been caught while retreating in a straight line and had allowed Briggs to reach him with punches that might have ended the contest against a less durable champion. His recovery, however, was disciplined. He did not attempt to answer recklessly after being hurt. Instead, he returned to the jab, forced Briggs to work, and waited until the challenger’s early speed had disappeared before applying the finish.

The victory moved Lewis towards the heavyweight championship unification contests with Evander Holyfield, which followed in 1999. Before then, he was required to meet the unbeaten Croatian challenger Željko Mavrovi?, whom he defeated over 12 rounds. Briggs rebuilt his career and later won the WBO heavyweight title, but in Atlantic City, his limitations were exposed. He possessed sufficient power and hand speed to trouble Lewis briefly, yet lacked the endurance and defensive discipline required to maintain that threat. Lewis survived the danger, took command and completed the stoppage with the measured authority of an established champion.

Shannon Briggs had quick hands, serious power and the confidence of a man who had just been handed a disputed win over George Foreman. But his weaknesses were already known: his engine was unreliable and, once the early speed disappeared, his defence fell apart. Against Lennox Lewis, that is a dangerous combination.

Briggs nearly made the gamble pay in the opening round. A short left shook Lewis badly, and another attack had him stumbling into the corner near the bell. Lewis later rated Briggs among the hardest punchers he faced, and you could see why. But what impressed me was the champion’s reaction. He did not lose his head or start swinging for pride. He recovered, put the jab back in Briggs’s face and made him work at a pace he could not sustain.

By the fourth, Briggs was breathing heavily, and Lewis was landing the right hand almost at will. Two knockdowns followed, then another in the fifth. Briggs rose again, missed a desperate hook and collapsed from exhaustion before referee Frank Cappuccino stopped it at 1:45. The cards after four rounds had Lewis ahead 39–35 twice and 38–36.

Briggs was dangerous for three minutes. Lewis was dangerous for as long as the fight lasted. That was the difference between a puncher with athletic gifts and a proper heavyweight champion who could think, recover and finish the job.