WBC Light Heavyweight Eliminator
Posted: 30 Mar 2004, 10:23
The WBC have apparently confirmed that No. 2 ranked contender Paul Briggs of Australia and German based Croatian Stipe Drews ranked No. 3 will fight in a chance to be the man who will face the winner of the May 15th rematch between Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones Jnr. It is likely that should Jones win as is expected then he will boycott the chance to defend his title and go in search of big paydays while a Tarver victory represents a more realistic chance of a fight for the two contenders.
While unbeaten Drews holds a 25-0 (12) record it is Briggs at 22-1 (17) who has arguably fought the better opposition. After a KO loss in only his second fight Briggs - a former kickboxing star - has rebounded well by wiping out all legitimate opposition in Australia and is now ready for the world scene. At 28 time is not immediately against him but he feels he is ready now for the big challenges, Briggs posesses a huge right hand as former Roy Jones victim Glenn Kelly found it back in 2002. Other challengers such as Daniel Rowsell, Adrian Bellin, Paul Smallman and Toscar Petridis have also felt the power as did American Brad McNeil when he was stopped in one on a Kostya Tszyu undercard. Worryingly though Briggs was dropped in his last fight against Jesus Ruiz en-route to a unanimous points win, he does have at times questionable punch resistance but it is a minor drawback as his power, handspeed and punch picking are all good as he showed when he came close to stopping Jorge Castro.
Drews on the other hand is 30 years old and is a tall Light Heavy at 6'5, i saw him in his last fight against Oliver Beard and he looked strong and confident early on but soon lost interest with his come forward opponent and resorted to flicking the jab and the combinations became less consistent before Mickey Vann compassionately called time in the sixth round. His best win to date was probably when he won the vacant EBU title over Silvio Branco after he came in as a late substitute and defended it against respectable French fighter Kamel Amrane while adding the IBF intercontinental belt to his record in the process. His punch resistance is unclear as his early opposition were clearly in there to help Drews learning process, his punching power is not great either.
I think Briggs will have too much for Drews and will find his way in behind the jab to explode with those big right hands to wear him down, whether the fight is held in Australia or Germany will determine if he will need the stoppage to win.
While unbeaten Drews holds a 25-0 (12) record it is Briggs at 22-1 (17) who has arguably fought the better opposition. After a KO loss in only his second fight Briggs - a former kickboxing star - has rebounded well by wiping out all legitimate opposition in Australia and is now ready for the world scene. At 28 time is not immediately against him but he feels he is ready now for the big challenges, Briggs posesses a huge right hand as former Roy Jones victim Glenn Kelly found it back in 2002. Other challengers such as Daniel Rowsell, Adrian Bellin, Paul Smallman and Toscar Petridis have also felt the power as did American Brad McNeil when he was stopped in one on a Kostya Tszyu undercard. Worryingly though Briggs was dropped in his last fight against Jesus Ruiz en-route to a unanimous points win, he does have at times questionable punch resistance but it is a minor drawback as his power, handspeed and punch picking are all good as he showed when he came close to stopping Jorge Castro.
Drews on the other hand is 30 years old and is a tall Light Heavy at 6'5, i saw him in his last fight against Oliver Beard and he looked strong and confident early on but soon lost interest with his come forward opponent and resorted to flicking the jab and the combinations became less consistent before Mickey Vann compassionately called time in the sixth round. His best win to date was probably when he won the vacant EBU title over Silvio Branco after he came in as a late substitute and defended it against respectable French fighter Kamel Amrane while adding the IBF intercontinental belt to his record in the process. His punch resistance is unclear as his early opposition were clearly in there to help Drews learning process, his punching power is not great either.
I think Briggs will have too much for Drews and will find his way in behind the jab to explode with those big right hands to wear him down, whether the fight is held in Australia or Germany will determine if he will need the stoppage to win.
