Shannon Briggs has revealed who he believes to be the greatest heavyweight ever.
Briggs, who was known by his moniker ‘The Cannon’ enjoyed an impressive professional career of his own, winning 60 of his 68 outings between the years of 1992 and 2016.
He captured the WBO world heavyweight championship when he stopped Siarhei Liakhovich in the 12th and final round of their showdown at Chase Field in Arizona back in November 2006, although Briggs would go on to lose his crown in his next outing against Sultan Ibragimov.
Briggs challenged Ukrainian great Vitali Klitschko for the WBC world heavyweight title in 2010 but ultimately fell short on the night, suffering a unanimous decision defeat to ‘Dr. Ironfist’ in Germany.
In a feature with Mail Sport Boxing, Briggs was tasked with ranking some of boxing’s best heavyweight’s across separate categories, although he didn’t hesitate to rank Muhammad Ali at the top of list, as he claims the late-great boxing icon is the ‘G.O.A.T’.
Ali is often regarded as being one of, if not the greatest fighter to have ever laced up the gloves. He rose to prominence during the early sixties and established himself as a serious contender in no time at all.
He would go on to win the world heavyweight championship on three occasions throughout the course of his tenure, defeating the likes of Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Sonny Liston and ‘Big’ George Foreman amongst many others.
His 1974 battle with Foreman, which is more commonly known as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’, remains one of the sports most memorable moments.
