Shannon Briggs wins Tyson Fury poll

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: Tyson Fury asked the boxing fans to pick his “next victim” in selecting from this group of fighters: Shannon Briggs, Alexander Povetkin, David Price and Manuel Charr vs. Alexander Ustinov.

The fans want to see Fury facing the 45-year-old Shannon Briggs next, according to the poll.

The results are as follows:

• 43% Shannon Briggs

• 40% David Price

• 14% Alexander Povetkin

• 3% Charr vs. Ustinov winner

There wasn’t an option for the fans to pick Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder.

Now it’s going to be interesting to see if Fury, 29, goes ahead and attempts to put together a fight against Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs) or not. Briggs is old, but he’s still got a lot of power in his punches. Fury has faced only one big puncher during his career, and that was Wladimir Klitschko. Fury didn’t get hit much by Wladimir because he fought in a fearful manner for the entire 12 round fight in 2015. Wladimir didn’t want to get countered by any of Fury’s punches.

Briggs isn’t that kind of fighter. He’s going to go after Fury, and look to take him out with a body shot. Briggs has given up being a head hunter at his age. He clearly doesn’t trust his ability to connect with an elusive target. Briggs puts his entire focus on landing to the body nowadays. That’s going to be a problem for Fury, because he usually bends backwards to avoid getting hit to the head. His midsection is right there to be hit.

Briggs would be a tune-up opponent for Fury. Briggs hasn’t fought since last year, but he’s still very popular in social media.

”My target is Tyson Fury. He’s a chump, he’s a punk,” said Briggs to skysports.com. ”He shot some words at me on Twitter but he’s scared of me. This is the biggest fight for both of us, besides him getting a massive title fight. If he needs a tune-up for a title fight, why not fight a 45,000-year-old man?’

Fury does need a tune-up, and Briggs would more than adequately fit the bill to serve that function. Fury can’t overlook a big puncher like Briggs though, as he’s someone that has a lot of experience and a great deal of punching power/ Briggs might be as hard a puncher as Wladimir Klitschko, but he’s more willing to let his hands go and land his power shots.

Briggs has received clearance to resume his boxing career after serving a suspension from a positive drug test. Fury is still waiting for the UK Anti-Doping hearing to give him clearance to resume his boxing career.