Briggs confident of defeating Drews
 By Anthony Cocks, Site Editor (August 13, 2004)
 |
|
Paul 'Hurricane' Briggs
|
Editorial Note: Paul Briggs speaks exclusively to Doghouse Boxing about his light heavyweight elimination bout
When WBC #2 ranked light heavyweight Paul 'Hurricane' Briggs makes his return to the ring against unbeaten southpaw and WBC #3 Stipe Drews on Sunday night at the State Sports Centre in Homebush, Sydney, he hopes to do more than just secure the mandatory contender position in the WBC rankings.
After four months in the United States training under the auspices of two-time trainer of the year Jack Mosley, Briggs is eager to show his hometown fans how much he has improved under the enigmatic Mosley's unique training regime.
"It's been awesome, unbelievable," enthused Briggs, 22-1 (17), when asked about his preparation. "It's been the best prep that I've had so far. It finished off with some great sparring with Derrick Harmon and one of America's top amateurs; I can't think of his name off the top of my head. But he was really, really fast and he could switch southpaw or orthodox. It was just a great finish to the camp."
At 6-foot-5, the 31 year-old German-based Croatian is a tall order in anyone's language. But Briggs, who stands at a little over 5-foot-11, is confident that the difference in height won't pose a problem for him.
"(We sparred boxers) as tall as we could get. But the punching range to where I am going to be punching is not necessarily going to be straight up to his head anyway. The height didn't matter too much and he's not a guy who really capitalizes on his reach a whole lot, so it wasn't a great dilemma for us," he explained.
When pressed on whether he was planning on tearing into Drews' ample ribcage, the 28 year-old played his cards close to his chest but gave away few hints as to what to expect.
"Like I said I'm not too worried about trying to hit him in the chin," he said. "He's just so damn tall. I've been watching and studying his tapes and he moves very well for a big fella, so it's going to be a bit pointless trying to swing away and miss with punches. We've got a game plan and we're just going to stick to that."
In his last bout against Jesus Ruiz in March, Briggs was dropped for the first time in his professional career in the second round before clawing his way back into the fight to gut out a unanimous decision win. Although he fought back gallantly and managed to hurt Ruiz late in the fight, the absence of a jab made Briggs' job that much harder against the 6-foot-2 Mexican.
"Yeah, well we've been working on my jab too and it's almost as strong as my right hand now," said Briggs, who is widely regarded as one of the biggest punchers in Australia. "So I think my jab is definitely going to be what's going to win the fight, and just my speed as well. We've improved my speed and timing a helluva lot more than what it was. I'm going to be a helluva lot harder to hit than anyone he's fought before. Looking at all his past opponents, a lot of them are very average boxers that just stand in front of him and he can just pick them off. I'm going to be using angles, and just not standing right in front of him."
Despite having limited experience with southpaws in his professional career, Briggs doesn't anticipate he will have any problems with the awkward style that lefthanders bring to the ring.
"No, not at all. I've been handling all the southpaws in America. And I always have. I've never had a problem with southpaws because I can switch as well. I actually enjoy fighting southpaws more probably, because you can get more creative, you have a lot more options," he said.
"I think he will be trying to catch me on the way in, and I think he will be doing a lot of what he normally does. I haven't seen a great change in him in any of his fights. He's very much set in his ways and I think that's how he's going to fight."
Some pundits have speculated that Briggs would have been better off taking a tune-up bout before facing the formidable Drews, 26-0 (12), to ensure that he had fully adjusted to Mosley's style of fighting. Not surprisingly, Briggs rejects the suggestion.
"No, because Jack hasn't changed my style at all," responded Briggs. "He's just capitalized on what I already had, so we're just really fine-tuning things and putting the polish on. Great trainers don't change fighters, they just work with what they’ve got and perfect it. That’s really what Jack's been doing, because I think guys at my level are already set in our ways. We already know how to fight, it's just the little things we need to work on. There won't be any problem with me handling anything because I'll just be being me out there."
With all the hard work already done back in the States, Briggs engaged the services of former WBA super middleweight titleholder Anthony Mundine for some light sparring to keep him sharp ahead of fight night.
"Yeah, it went good," he said. "He's really fast. It would've been good to get some more done with him, but he had a little injury. It was more I really wanted the speed work because Drews isn't all that fast and my speed is going to be a huge factor in this fight."
If all goes well for Briggs on Sunday, he will have a mandate to face current WBC champion Antonio Tarver for recognition as the true champ at 175lbs. So what can the fans expect to see when he steps through the ropes on Sunday night?
"Just a really exciting fight and a real quality version of Paul Briggs."
The card was originally scheduled to be televised by Main Event Pay-Per-View, but a contract dispute between d-Rush, the promoter of the event, and Drews' promoter Universum has scotched the idea. Tickets are still available through Ticketek by logging on to http://premier.ticketek.com.au/ or by phoning (02) 8266 4800. Tickets will also be available at the door, so if you want to see Paul Briggs in action, make sure you get out to the State Sport Centre in Homebush on Sunday night.
|
|
|
|
© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
|
|
|
