Briggs defeats dirty Drews
 Ringside Report by Anthony Cocks, Site Editor (August 16, 2004)
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Photo © Sheldon Kidd
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Australian Paul ‘Hurricane’ Briggs, 23-1 (17), became the WBC #1 contender and cemented his claim to a shot at WBC light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver with a unanimous points decision over formerly unbeaten Croatian Stipe Drews, 26-1 (12), in a foul-filled affair at the State Sports Centre in Homebush, Sydney on Sunday night.
Briggs was diplomatic when speaking about the dirty tactics of his opponent in the ring after the fight: “You have to remember that this is a fight. We’re not playing lawn bowls in there. What was important was that I kept my cool in there and won the fight."
Southpaw Drews controlled the action in the early rounds with a snaking right jabbed backed up by the occasional hook. Briggs struggled to find his range against the 6-foot-5 Drews, who showed his defensive savvy by stepping out of range and slipping to the right when Briggs lunged after him.
In the third round Briggs picked up the pace, showing some nice lateral movement and bloodying Drews’ nose with a right hand, but the lanky visitor was still proving to be an elusive target.
Sensing he was slipping behind, Briggs became more aggressive in the fourth, landing a thudding lead right to the body of Drews and throwing left-right hooks to the body followed by hooks upstairs in the clinches. Drews, who has fought almost exclusively in his adopted country of Germany, started looking to referee Laurance Cole whenever Briggs hit him in the clinches apparently for some perceived infraction.
Briggs continued to land the harder punches in the fifth, but Drews was still effective with his jab, preventing the 29-year-old Australian from getting close enough to land his heavy artillery.
The complexion of the fight changed dramatically in the sixth. Briggs was starting to time Drews’ jab and finding a home for his hard left hooks over the top. Midway through the round Briggs caught Drews with a picture-perfect left hook to the jaw that dropped the stunned Croatian to the seat of his pants. Drews survived the count but soon found himself on the canvas again courtesy of a Briggs right hand. Sensing he had his man hurt, Briggs went in for the kill, only to be met by a knee to the groin from Drews in a clinch.
The many Croatians in the crowd, who up until this point had been chanting their support, fell silent. Referee Cole deducted a point. Abuse rained down from every corner of the arena.
This flagrant foul only seemed to fire Briggs up, who put Drews down again with another right hand at the start of the seventh. Drews began fighting back out of desperation, but the footwork and defence he had shown earlier was gone. As Briggs grew more confident, Drews grew increasingly frustrated at his inability to keep his opponent off him. In the ninth referce Cole deducted another point from Drews, this time for twisting Briggs head in a headlock during a clinch. In the eleventh round Drews was docked yet another point, this time for leading with his head.
Ironically Drews’ best round was the twelfth, when he switched between southpaw and orthodox. Displaying surprising power, Drew nailed Briggs with some hard right uppercuts from the orthodox stance and seemed to have the Australian confused. But it was too little too late for Drews, who not only lost his unblemished record, but will now also wear the stigma of being known a dirty fighter.
All three judges scored the fight in favour of Briggs. Judge Kazumasa Kuwata had it 115-109, judge Marty Sammon carded it 117-105, while judge James Jen-Kin saw it 113-109.
The main support bout saw the ‘Black Panther’ Lovemore Ndou, 39-7-1 (25), successfully defended his IBF Pan Pacific title with a 5th round TKO of game but outgunned Uruguayan Ruben Diaz, 13-8-1 (4). 32 year-old Ndou started slowly but soon found his rhythm, punishing Diaz to the body before landing powerful shots upstairs. To his credit Diaz never stopped fighting back, but Ndou’s superior class left the 27 year-old with little chance of securing a victory. A left hook to the liver dropped Diaz in the 5th and his corner wisely retired him between rounds.
Anton Solopov, 7-0 (6), made short work of Harmen Adjadato with a first round stoppage of the normally durable Indonesian. Adjadato, who has previously been eight rounds against Nader Hamden on two occasions and lasted nine with Shannan Taylor, folded under the measured attack of the Russian-born southpaw.
Classy middleweight Sakio Bika upped his record to 17-1 (10) with a unanimous six round points decision over Rico Chong Nee, 9-6-1 (5). Bika used a varied attack to punish the rugged Chong Nee, who makes up for his limited skills with his massive heart. Judges scores were 60-55 and 60-54 twice.
Debuting Billy Dib, 1-0 (1), showboated his way to a 4th round stoppage over equally flamboyant debutante Nagin Guruma, 0-1 (0), from Malaysia. Both fighters did their best ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed impersonations, but it was Dib who landed the sharper punches, dropping Guruma twice in the 4th to earn the victory.
Khoren Gevorgyan, 19-2 (11), from the Universum stable, defeated Ian McLeod, 20-13-1 (4), by 5th round TKO when the Australian was unable to continue after injuring his hand. Southpaw Gevorgyan looked to be on his way to a comfortable victory prior to the stoppage.
In an entertaining stoush at heavyweight, Mark DeMori, 6-0-1 (5), won by 2nd round knockout over Steven Kilarski, 0-1 (0). Kilarski looked to have DeMori in a bit of trouble in the early going, but DeMori responded with a series of savage body shots that dropped the Canadian for the full count in the second stanza.
The card was promoted by d-Rush Promotions, who did an outstanding job in putting together an entertaining night of pugilism featuring international fighters in only their second promotion.
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