Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Briggs in hype mode for Oquendo fight
HOLLYWOOD — Shannon Briggs, the 45-year-old former two-time heavyweight champion, whipped off his shirt and tried his best to rile up 44-year-old Fres Oquendo, his opponent in a WBA heavyweight title fight scheduled for June 3 at Hard Rock Live.
It was merely five or six minutes into the press conference Tuesday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to announce the fight between Briggs (60-61, 53 KOs) and Oquendo (37-8, 24 KOs) for what is basically a secondtier title.
That was when Briggs, the Broward resident who hypes a fight as well as any heavyweight in the game, declared he’d had enough.
“June 3rd, you in trouble!” Briggs started yelling at Oquendo and walking in his direction. “I’m telling you, this is the wrong place, this the wrong town! You ain’t winning the title! You ain’t coming up over here!
“This ain’t a come-up for you, champ! This ain’t a come-up for you. … That’s right. I see it in your eyes — you’re scared, too! I see it on your eyes!”
Briggs’ entourage, which was maybe 20 deep and included former heavyweight champions Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Chris Byrd, went crazy, laughing and cheering.
Oquendo was unfazed. At one point he took a sip out of a bottle of water while Briggs was mid-rant.
Briggs finished his outburst by leading the chant that has been his theme for the past few years, “Let’s go champ! Let’s go champ!”
The partisan crowd responded in similar fashion.
Triumphant, Briggs sat back down.
That’s how things went at the media event to promote the Backyard Brawl: Briggs vs. Oquendo, a scheduled seven-fight card.
The winner of the Briggs-Oquendo will likely face Alexander Ustinov in the next step of what is essentially a tournament to unify the heavyweight title.
Briggs and Oquendo were basically forced to fight for the vacant secondary WBA title through a winding series of events.
In brief, Oquendo lost to Ruslan Chagaev in July 2014. Oquendo’s contract called for a rematch but Chagaev tried to arrange another fight. Oquendo went to court and got an injunction to stop Chagaev from fighting. In the meantime, Chagaev was stripped of the title.
So, Oquendo and Briggs got the fight.
Negotiations between Briggs’ people, the Heavyweight Factory, and Oquendo’s camp, Roy Jones Jr.’s Square Ring Promotions and Bobby Hitz Boxing, were slow. There apparently wasn’t much of a public appetite for this bout between two 40-somethings.
“Negotiations were a little difficult getting it done, but we finally got it done,” Hitz said, later adding, “We’re going to be like Clint Eastwood, come into town real quiet and just leave with the belt.”
As usual with boxing, allegations were leveled.
“This team filled out the voluntary anti-doping paper and we turned it in,” said Tom Tsatas, Oquendo’s manager and owner of the famed 5th Street Gym on South Beach, where Oquendo is training.
“We’re still waiting for the other side to do that, so we’ll see how that goes.”
And smart-aleck responses were the norm.
“The WBA has the (antidoping) forms,” said Henry Rivalta, director of boxing at the Heavyweight Factory. “We never received them until four days ago. … finally when I received it I sent it to Shannon — he filled it out the same day, sent it back to me and we forwarded it to (the WBA).
“Another thing is we’re fighting for this world title fight because of merit. We’re not court-ordered by a judge to fight for this world title.”