Former world champion Shannon Briggs has spoken honestly about the chances of one of his former rivals Wladimir Klitschko returning to the ring to win a world title at nearly 49 years of age.
American fighter Briggs is a larger-than-life character who has enamoured himself with fans in recent years for his catchphrase ‘Let’s go champ!’
He famously pursued former long-reigning world champion Klitschko, shouting that at him at every opportunity in the hopes of luring the Ukrainian into a lucrative fight, though it never materialised before Klitschko instead fought and lost to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in his last two fights.
Briggs did secure a fight with Wladimir’s bother Vitali many years before and took a long, sustained beating in the ring.
These days he is focused on opening up a boxing academy in his native Brownsville, Brooklyn, but was recently asked by Sky Sports about Wladimir’s potential return to the ring after plenty of talk linking him with the likes of Daniel Dubois.
“It’s hard for me to believe that Klitschko can come back and go into a heavyweight championship fight without a series of interim fights. It’s just really hard to believe.”
Klitschko’s last fight came back in 2016 when he attempted to win back some of the titles he lost to Fury the year before. It was an epic contest in which both men were down, but ultimately ‘AJ’ got the job done and sent ‘Dr Steelhammer’ into retirement.
The closest he has been to a ring since was watching his countryman Oleksandr Usyk become the undisputed world champion.
