BoxRec

Mairis Briedis, IBF Cruiserweight Champion, Announces Move To Heavyweight

IBF cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis has announced that he’ll no longer be fighting in the division.

“Hey guys, I’m coming to heavyweight,” Briedis said during a workout session before unleashing a barrage of punches on the heavy bag.

The video on his TikTok channel was captioned “I am not afraid to take a step” and paired with two rocket emojis. Briedis’ song of choice for the video was Eminem's hit song “Not Afraid.”



In recent weeks, Briedis has also challenged Jake Paul to a fight on his social media channels by posting a series of videos.

Time will tell if his announcement and move to heavyweight was made for the sake of creating content, or an exclusive peek into the stage of his career.

A good decision. He's not young, it's time to cash out. Furthermore, he still looked good in the recent fights. He definitely can handle some top fighters, like Parker or Ruiz, or Whyte. The Gassiev matchup also sounds fine, as it's the missing bout of the WBSS CW era. Hopefully he just doesn't do like Gassiev and fights someone decent soon.

Hope he gets strait into it. and i hope Usyk and Gassiev really start preforming. be great to see those three reunited as top 15 heavyweights. I think Usyk is a top 5, briedis is a 5-10 and Gassiev is a 10-15 (if they are fit and healthy).

If these 3 can turn it on it would be a great look for cruisers, and for tournaments.

Although i would of liked to see him fight okoli first. Just cause it would of been a big fight and a great platfrom to move up from cause i think briedis chins him.

someone said he's gonna fight wach

Too small.

too small for what level though?

i doubt he's beating aj /fury, but how far can he go

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 18:53 someone said he's gonna fight wach

I dont hate that if he does it soon and fights again near the end of the year.. Thats a perfectly acceptable Tune into the weight fight. He will dominate it, if he dominates to decision then he is in decent company there. If he stops him they can hype his power at heavyweight. Also passes the "true heavyweight" test.

Id like to see him in with hammer or Andrey Fedosov Then Would love to see him in with pulev or ortiz, I think he beats both comfortably and that would put him strait in the heavyweight convo but cant see there being the funds behind him to secure those two.

One of the best P4P fighters out there and one of the greatest fighters of our generation and yet he recieves very little attention and very small purses. It's a damn shame.

By the time he gets any fight of any significance at HW he will be 40.

He's looking to feast on journeymen en route to earning one big retirement payday.

Breidis is a good fighter. But he's too old and small to make any real impact on the heavyweight division.

That said, I don't want to sound disrespectful, because Breidis is a fighter I respect, but making this sort of move at this very late stage of his career reeks of someone looking to sign-off on receiving one final huge payday.

And in terms of self-interest, I respect that and can understand the reason why he's doing this.

Well, that's not an announcement. Especially if you look at other silly videos that he uploads to his social media profiles.

That said, I don't rule out that he will move to the HW soon, we'll see. He's currently negotiating with Michał Cieślak's camp.

aicheligad wrote: ↑05 Jul 2021, 05:13 Well, that's not an announcement. Especially if you look at other silly videos that he uploads to his social media profiles.

That said, I don't rule out that he will move to the HW soon, we'll see. He's currently negotiating with Michał Cieślak's camp.

Building up his viewers..

He'll be on OnlyFans next..

Can’t blame him. Good career move. Cruiser is pretty depleted again.

You mean he's leapfrogging Bridgerweight??

Briedes is small he could never beat fighters as good as charr, stiverne, charles martin, etc

Guy just wants to cash in. He doesn’t mind getting banjo’ed at heavy as long as the money is good.
Gutted that we won’t see Briedas/Jake Paul now.

Has there even been a bridgerweight fight?

gregregegg wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 19:15

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 18:53 someone said he's gonna fight wach

I dont hate that if he does it soon and fights again near the end of the year.. Thats a perfectly acceptable Tune into the weight fight. He will dominate it, if he dominates to decision then he is in decent company there. If he stops him they can hype his power at heavyweight. Also passes the "true heavyweight" test.

Id like to see him in with hammer or Andrey Fedosov Then Would love to see him in with pulev or ortiz, I think he beats both comfortably and that would put him strait in the heavyweight convo but cant see there being the funds behind him to secure those two.

nobody beats ortiz (even pulev to a lesser degree) 'comfortably'.

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑05 Jul 2021, 10:59 Briedes is small he could never beat fighters as good as charr, stiverne, charles martin, etc

i get it, you're joking.

he knocked charr already out, clean into dreamland.

briedis would mop the floor with all 3 of this 'heavyweight champions'.

one after the other, in one night if necessary.

a prince charles that got his shit together if something like that could ever possibly be, could pose maybe a bit of a challenge.

stiverne is waiting for his 3rd 'encounter' in a 'big' comeback fight with wilder after they put the pieces of him back together that fury will be leaving twitching on the floor.

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑05 Jul 2021, 04:25 He's looking to feast on journeymen en route to earning one big retirement payday.

Breidis is a good fighter. But he's too old and small to make any real impact on the heavyweight division.

That said, I don't want to sound disrespectful, because Breidis is a fighter I respect, but making this sort of move at this very late stage of his career reeks of someone looking to sign-off on receiving one final huge payday.

And in terms of self-interest, I respect that and can understand the reason why he's doing this.

But look how long Joe Joyce has been a pro. 4 years. Will Joe get a shot at the big money this year?
Nope.
How about the first half of next year?
Unlikely.
So Joyce, backed by a reasonably good promotion team, is going to take at least 5 to 5 1/2 years before he gets a big money fight.
Briedis is 36...

briedis is the #1 cruiser and already won a big ktfo at hw, he's not just turning pro like joe was tbf

he can prob get a title ranking in 1 fight

but seems like the belts will be held up with the aj-fury-wilder business

maybe he could go the bryan route? or maybe dubs and his fake title will become more lucrative in a few fights, i dunno

gregregegg wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 19:15

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 18:53 someone said he's gonna fight wach

Would love to see him in with pulev or ortiz, I think he beats both comfortably

I highly doubt it. Briedis is a CW who struggled vs Perez and arguably lost to Gevor/Mikaelyan. Also, he scored his last KO win in 2016.

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑05 Jul 2021, 16:01 briedis is the #1 cruiser and already won a big ktfo at hw, he's not just turning pro like joe was tbf

he can prob get a title ranking in 1 fight

but seems like the belts will be held up with the aj-fury-wilder business

maybe he could go the bryan route? or maybe dubs and his fake title will become more lucrative in a few fights, i dunno

title ranking?

what is the bryan route?

what title does dubois hold?

those are no titles, they are shit straps worth exactly that... shit.

dubois - briedis would be a good fight for both. i doubt briedis could hold dubious off but i'd like to see him give his best effort.

if he really can take dubious power for 12 rounds & outpoint him it would be a big win to jump start into the division.

big IF but it would put him right up there.

i guess it will be the obvious choice once again and it will be WAR!

aicheligad wrote: ↑05 Jul 2021, 16:15

gregregegg wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 19:15

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑04 Jul 2021, 18:53 someone said he's gonna fight wach

Would love to see him in with pulev or ortiz, I think he beats both comfortably

I highly doubt it. Briedis is a CW who struggled vs Perez and arguably lost to Gevor/Mikaelyan. Also, he scored his last KO win in 2016.

Well i mean, ortiz hasnt got a good win in about 5 or 6 years (if ever), since then Drug testing has become big, while he has moved well into his 40s and suffered 2 pretty heavy Kos, I think he is prime for the taking.
Pulev has basicaly the same consernes although he does have the hughie win but i think hughies lack of expperence and freaking out when he got cut played a huge role in that.

briedis got a KO win in 2019 vs Glowacki... although not without controversy, he did smash him to bits for about 10 seconds after round 2 ended. and then finnished him in the start of round 3.