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Paul Briggs: More Bang for Your Buck
Interview by Anthony Cocks, Site Editor (June 18, 2004) 
Photo © Sheldon Kidd
Australian light heavyweight contender Paul 'Hurricane' Briggs is looking forward to showing his hometown fans how much he has improved under the tutelage of two-time trainer of the year Jack Mosley when he takes on unbeaten Croatian contender Stipe Drews in an official eliminator for the WBC mandatory contender position at the State Sport Centre in Homebush, Sydney on August 15.

Briggs, who relocated to the States less than three months ago to help further his boxing career, is settling in well and has developed a good working relationship with Mosley in the short period of time they have been working together. Just how well Briggs had adapted to Mosley's unique training regime will be evidenced by how well he performs against Drews in front of a parochial Sydney crowd.

"I've watched a tape of his last fight," said Briggs, speaking exclusively to Doghouse Boxing from his L.A. home. "I've analyzed all his opponents as well and he doesn't really fight anywhere close to top rated opponents, so I don’t think I've got too much to worry about. He's got a really good jab and right uppercut, but he's not a puncher. The only way it can become a hard fight is just with his style, because he is so tall and awkward."

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Drews, 26-0 (12), has a strong amateur background and has fought all but three of his bouts in his adopted home of Germany. Despite having no recognizable names on his resume besides former WBA light heavyweight titleholder Silvio Branco, Drews has a solid team behind him with trainer Michael Timms and manager Klaus-Peter Kohl. While on paper there doesn't appear to be too much for Briggs to worry about, his credentials are eerily reminiscent of another light punching boxer who was also unbeaten when he recently traveled to his opponent's backyard and almost pulled off the upset.

"Yeah, for a tall guy he moves well," agreed Briggs, 22-1 (17). "I just know he hasn't fought anyone of my caliber yet and he's never faced anyone who punches as hard as I do. It's definitely a big shock when you step up in the quality of opponents that you're fighting and he's basically been fighting very average opponents in Germany, so to travel to the other side of the planet and really step up is a big call. It'll be really interesting to see how he handles it."

At 6'5" Drews will be the tallest fighter Briggs has ever faced, but the heavy-handed former Gold Coast native doesn't anticipate any problems.

"No, not at all," he said. "The sort of things I've been working on in the gym with Jack are really coming off in sparring and I've got some really good sparring partners. The things we've been working on with angles and that sort of thing, he's not going to be able to handle what we've got."

Briggs has taken to Mosley's 'power-boxing' style of fighting like a duck to water and believes that the fans will notice a marked improvement in his overall ability as a boxer.

"Jack's a great believer in power punching and lifting punch production, so if you're a heavy hitter he wants you to be able to throw plenty of punches in a round," explained Briggs. "I'm probably the fittest I've ever been in my life right now and we're still eight weeks out from the fight. The training he does is completely different to anything I've ever done before, so it enables me to get fit very quickly. He crosses up from the gym to the track and that sort of thing, but it's just from working on everything. He said he's got a good base to work with, with what I had already, so I'm really stoked with where I'm at so far."

With only four of his fights going the scheduled distance, Briggs has always been able to whack. But in a frightening development for his future opponents, Mosley's input has helped him further develop his punching power.

"I've always been a very strong puncher, but he's got me punching with my body now and he's corrected a lot of my footwork," said the former kickboxer. "You draw a lot of your power from your footwork and I'm hitting a hell of a lot harder now and in combination. I've never really punched in combinations, I've always really been a one-off puncher. So now that I punch in combinations it's interesting to see the damage that I do in sparring, so I can't wait to see how Stipe can stand up to what I've got."

Mosley's instruction has also helped Briggs become more mobile, allowing him to make better use of angles in the ring.

"I've always had fairly good footwork when I was kickboxing and with the boxing, so it's just getting lighter on my feet," said Briggs. "Jack really works on staying right up on your toes and being able to be there for easily twelve to fifteen rounds. The work schedule in the gym is unbelievable. I've never done this much work in the gym in one session that we do, so you know you're definitely fit enough. As you can see with Shane Mosley, he's always unbelievably fit and he's still up on his toes going into the twelfth round - except for maybe that last fight!

"We do a minimum of 20 rounds in the gym. That consists of pad work, sparring, bag work and a lot of different drills. Punch production drills on the bag, which is pretty hectic. So when you get to the ten or twelve round mark, you're pretty well wrecked and you're pretty much only halfway through the session. We also do a sprint routine on the track which last for about 40 minutes non-stop, then we do stair work and that sort of thing afterwards, so it's pretty full-on training."

While Antonio Tarver upset the status quo in the light heavyweight division when he knocked out Roy Jones in the second round of their rematch last month, Briggs remains staunchly unimpressed by Tarver's achievements and insists the lanky southpaw wouldn't pose any real problems if they were to meet in the ring.

"I think Tarver is so overrated it's not funny," he said. "I still think he is and so do a lot of people over here. I mean the beauty about boxing is that one punch can change your whole career and that's really all that happened. I was sitting in the fifth row back at that fight with Roy Jones. Tarver was one of the most scared fighters I've ever seen in my life even though he was talking to Roy before the fight and coming out after the first round and still talking to him. Every time he had a punch thrown at him, he just wasn't handling it. And Roy's not a real heavy hitter. He's a fast puncher, but he's not a heavy hitter, so I don't think I'd have a whole lot of problems with Tarver for the fact that I'm so hungry, I hit hard and I really want to take him out. And I know all Antonio is looking at, at the moment, is trying make money and that's not the best motivation to box."

Despite not holding Tarver in high regard, Briggs says he wasn't surprised by the outcome of the fight but admits that he felt some mixed emotions about the former pound-for-pound kingpin's dramatic knockout loss.

"I got asked to hop off my chair by security; I was standing up on the chair and I didn't realize I'd jumped up there," laughed Briggs when asked what went through his head when Jones hit the canvas. "I was very happy that Tarver proved what I've always thought, which is that Roy Jones is not Superman, he's just a man. I've been telling people that forever and I hit a hell of a lot harder than Tarver does, so if Tarver can knock him out with one punch, it would've been great too see what I could've done.

"But that's why I love boxing," continued Briggs, "because it doesn't matter how long you're on top, one punch can really change your career. You've really got to be on your game all the time, otherwise these things can happen. I was happy the myth had been shattered a bit with Roy. I'm happy because I know I can get a shot against Tarver. Roy Jones always said that he wasn't going to fight me, but in saying that, I'm a little bit disappointed that it was Antonio Tarver of all people to knock him out."

So what improvements can the Australian fight fans expect to see from Briggs when he climbs through the ropes on August 15?

"Definitely a real finished product," said Briggs. "I've always been a hard puncher and a raw fighter and all that sort of thing. You're going to see a real finished fighter, a devastating fighter who's pretty to watch. There's so much we're working on it's really hard to talk about it all, but you're going to see a massive, massive change. What I like to think is that Jack's got hold of a rough cut diamond and he's polished it right up."
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