Hurricane Briggs ready to storm USA
By Paul Upham: Paul “Hurricane” Briggs, 11-1 (10), is a rising star on the Australian boxing scene having made a tremendous impact in the year 2000. The former New Zealander will be making his US debut on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights on September 28, which he hopes will launch him into the Top 10 super-middleweights in the world.
Born in New Zealand in August 1975, Briggs moved with his family to the Northern Territory, Australia, when he was two. With twin brother Nathan, Paul was encouraged to box at an early age by his father David Briggs, who campaigned as a welterweight and fought all over the world including appearances in Australia on TV Ringside. “We got our first set of boxing gloves at age four and I had a permanent sparring partner with my twin,” said Briggs.
At five years old, Paul and his family moved to Brisbane where he grew up, though his mother was against he and his brother boxing at an early age. “Because of his background, my mother made my father agree that if he ever had sons that we would not box,” said Briggs. “Dad sort of taught us at home when mum would go out. Then we took the next best thing at age 11 which was kick-boxing.”
Training in his father’s gyms with his brother Nathan, Paul took a liking to the sport of Muay-Thai kick boxing after seeing tapes of the sport from Thailand and Holland.
“We were pretty taken by it,” said Briggs, who had tried all of the other martial arts before concentrating on Muay-Thai.
He had his first Muay-Thai kick-boxing fight at the age of 14 in 1989 and remembers that the sport was just becoming more well-known due to the release of the movie, “Kick Boxer” starring Jean Claude-Van Damme.
“I wore that movie t-shirt to my first fight,” said Briggs.“Mum was right against it and didn’t want us boxing, but she thought that because it wasn’t boxing it wasn’t that bad. Somebody forgot to tell her that you can knee your opponent in the head and kick them in the face.”
Briggs finished his kick-boxing career with a record of 51-4-1 (38). He was a recognised world champion and became a big star in Japan, though Briggs believes that kick-boxing is nowhere as well regulated and organised as boxing is around the world. “In kick-boxing, the money was in Japan,” said Briggs.
“The problem with kick-boxing is that it is not as official and organised as boxing. I was very underrated in Australia and I was doing a lot overseas. I didn’t really get a lot of recognition for what I did.”
During this time, Briggs spent three months living in Thailand and describes it as the toughest experience of his life both physically and mentally. “It’s like being in jail and you have to train seven days a week. They don’t have the knowledge on the body that a lot of Western people have, that you can get stale and that your body needs to rest. They just train you harder,” said Briggs.
He actually made his boxing debut while he was still in the middle of his kick boxing career in 1995 winning a 10-round points decision over Ronald Doo in Stafford, Queensland. In January 1997, Briggs had his second boxing bout, which would prove to be a very humbling experience when he was stopped in the third round by Lari Zada.
“That was at the end of my kick boxing career. I was world champion and I thought I was the man,” said Briggs. “I didn’t train one day and did not hit a bag once for that fight. I was thinking that I can jump in there and knock anyone out and I just got pulverised. I learnt more from that fight than any other fight in my life.”
After another period of pursuing his kick-boxing career, an opportunity to box again arose in November 1999 when Briggs stopped Ken Suavine in four rounds. After the fight, Briggs was introduced to trainer Rod Waterhouse, who offered to show him how to really box.
“Rod is my mentor. I have never met anyone like him in my life. He is brutally honest which is good for a trainer. He’s hard and firm but fair,” said Briggs, who has improved tremendously under Waterhouse’ tutelage.
“I realised boxing was really my first love as a child and I had been held backing from doing it,” said Briggs, who undertook three months of hard training to prepare himself for an assault on the sport in the year 2000.
Briggs recorded five wins from five fights all by stoppage. He won the IBF Pan Pacific cruiserweight title and Australian light-heavyweight title in the process and impressed many fine judges with his devastating punching power.
“I’m on my way to super-middleweight. I’m actually getting stronger. My punching is unbelievable now. The lighter I seem to get the stronger I am getting and the harder I am punching,” said Briggs.
A recent training trip to the UK gave Briggs further confidence that he was on the right track. “It was good and it made me realise how hard we really train. It boosted my confidence,” said Briggs.
Moving down to 168lbs may give many people in Australia the impression that he is chasing IBF Pan Pacific super-middleweight champion Anthony “The Man” Mundine, a claim he refutes.
“My main goal is the WBC super middleweight title. I’m beyond the Mundine thing. I don’t even have an opinion on the bloke anymore. I put an offer up to him purely for one reason. I like some of the names on my resumé so far and I believe that they are some of the hardest blokes in Australia that I could have fought,” said Briggs.
“Mundine, I wanted to fight him because I thought he was good and he would be another good name on my resume. I was never after the money or the glory. It was just to say that I had beaten the best in Australia.”
Briggs returns to the ring this Saturday night at Movie World on the Gold Coast against old rival Gurkan Ozkan, 2-0 (0), who was one of only four men to defeat him in kick-boxing.
“I’m a man of my word and said I’d fight anybody in boxing before I went overseas and Gurkan put his hand up. It is a nothing fight for me, but I still have to take it and it is a good money fight. He won’t be able to land on me because he is just a swinger,” said Briggs, who will headline a mixed card of boxing and kick-boxing.
The planning is already underway for Briggs to be trained by Freddie Roach in the USA in preparation for his 10-round fight on September 28 in San Francisco on the undercard of Leonard Dorin vs Emanuel Burton on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.
With a nine month old son, Isaiah to support, the 26-year-old Briggs realises that he cannot afford any mistakes as he looks to make an impression on the world scene.
“I want to get in the Top 10 by the end of this year as a super-middleweight and try and challenge Eric Lucas some time next year. My main goal is to focus on him,” said Briggs.
“He is not really a puncher. He has a big heart and pretty good defence. But very slow and very flatfooted and I don’t think he has got anything special, but you never know until I get in there with him. I think he would be tailor made for me.”
Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
Born in New Zealand in August 1975, Briggs moved with his family to the Northern Territory, Australia, when he was two. With twin brother Nathan, Paul was encouraged to box at an early age by his father David Briggs, who campaigned as a welterweight and fought all over the world including appearances in Australia on TV Ringside. “We got our first set of boxing gloves at age four and I had a permanent sparring partner with my twin,” said Briggs.
At five years old, Paul and his family moved to Brisbane where he grew up, though his mother was against he and his brother boxing at an early age. “Because of his background, my mother made my father agree that if he ever had sons that we would not box,” said Briggs. “Dad sort of taught us at home when mum would go out. Then we took the next best thing at age 11 which was kick-boxing.”
Training in his father’s gyms with his brother Nathan, Paul took a liking to the sport of Muay-Thai kick boxing after seeing tapes of the sport from Thailand and Holland.
“We were pretty taken by it,” said Briggs, who had tried all of the other martial arts before concentrating on Muay-Thai.
He had his first Muay-Thai kick-boxing fight at the age of 14 in 1989 and remembers that the sport was just becoming more well-known due to the release of the movie, “Kick Boxer” starring Jean Claude-Van Damme.
“I wore that movie t-shirt to my first fight,” said Briggs.“Mum was right against it and didn’t want us boxing, but she thought that because it wasn’t boxing it wasn’t that bad. Somebody forgot to tell her that you can knee your opponent in the head and kick them in the face.”
Briggs finished his kick-boxing career with a record of 51-4-1 (38). He was a recognised world champion and became a big star in Japan, though Briggs believes that kick-boxing is nowhere as well regulated and organised as boxing is around the world. “In kick-boxing, the money was in Japan,” said Briggs.
“The problem with kick-boxing is that it is not as official and organised as boxing. I was very underrated in Australia and I was doing a lot overseas. I didn’t really get a lot of recognition for what I did.”
During this time, Briggs spent three months living in Thailand and describes it as the toughest experience of his life both physically and mentally. “It’s like being in jail and you have to train seven days a week. They don’t have the knowledge on the body that a lot of Western people have, that you can get stale and that your body needs to rest. They just train you harder,” said Briggs.
He actually made his boxing debut while he was still in the middle of his kick boxing career in 1995 winning a 10-round points decision over Ronald Doo in Stafford, Queensland. In January 1997, Briggs had his second boxing bout, which would prove to be a very humbling experience when he was stopped in the third round by Lari Zada.
“That was at the end of my kick boxing career. I was world champion and I thought I was the man,” said Briggs. “I didn’t train one day and did not hit a bag once for that fight. I was thinking that I can jump in there and knock anyone out and I just got pulverised. I learnt more from that fight than any other fight in my life.”
After another period of pursuing his kick-boxing career, an opportunity to box again arose in November 1999 when Briggs stopped Ken Suavine in four rounds. After the fight, Briggs was introduced to trainer Rod Waterhouse, who offered to show him how to really box.
“Rod is my mentor. I have never met anyone like him in my life. He is brutally honest which is good for a trainer. He’s hard and firm but fair,” said Briggs, who has improved tremendously under Waterhouse’ tutelage.
“I realised boxing was really my first love as a child and I had been held backing from doing it,” said Briggs, who undertook three months of hard training to prepare himself for an assault on the sport in the year 2000.
Briggs recorded five wins from five fights all by stoppage. He won the IBF Pan Pacific cruiserweight title and Australian light-heavyweight title in the process and impressed many fine judges with his devastating punching power.
“I’m on my way to super-middleweight. I’m actually getting stronger. My punching is unbelievable now. The lighter I seem to get the stronger I am getting and the harder I am punching,” said Briggs.
A recent training trip to the UK gave Briggs further confidence that he was on the right track. “It was good and it made me realise how hard we really train. It boosted my confidence,” said Briggs.
Moving down to 168lbs may give many people in Australia the impression that he is chasing IBF Pan Pacific super-middleweight champion Anthony “The Man” Mundine, a claim he refutes.
“My main goal is the WBC super middleweight title. I’m beyond the Mundine thing. I don’t even have an opinion on the bloke anymore. I put an offer up to him purely for one reason. I like some of the names on my resumé so far and I believe that they are some of the hardest blokes in Australia that I could have fought,” said Briggs.
“Mundine, I wanted to fight him because I thought he was good and he would be another good name on my resume. I was never after the money or the glory. It was just to say that I had beaten the best in Australia.”
Briggs returns to the ring this Saturday night at Movie World on the Gold Coast against old rival Gurkan Ozkan, 2-0 (0), who was one of only four men to defeat him in kick-boxing.
“I’m a man of my word and said I’d fight anybody in boxing before I went overseas and Gurkan put his hand up. It is a nothing fight for me, but I still have to take it and it is a good money fight. He won’t be able to land on me because he is just a swinger,” said Briggs, who will headline a mixed card of boxing and kick-boxing.
The planning is already underway for Briggs to be trained by Freddie Roach in the USA in preparation for his 10-round fight on September 28 in San Francisco on the undercard of Leonard Dorin vs Emanuel Burton on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.
With a nine month old son, Isaiah to support, the 26-year-old Briggs realises that he cannot afford any mistakes as he looks to make an impression on the world scene.
“I want to get in the Top 10 by the end of this year as a super-middleweight and try and challenge Eric Lucas some time next year. My main goal is to focus on him,” said Briggs.
“He is not really a puncher. He has a big heart and pretty good defence. But very slow and very flatfooted and I don’t think he has got anything special, but you never know until I get in there with him. I think he would be tailor made for me.”
Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
SecondsOut Weekly Newsletter
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