Gotham Boxing Press Conference At the Palm West

Gotham Boxing Press Conference At the Palm West

By Saul Lelchuk (June 28, 2006)

Shannon Briggs

Tuesday, June 27th -- Cedric Kushner’s Gotham Boxing Promotions held a press lunch and conference today at the renowned Palm West Restaurant to showcase three fighters who will appear in the upcoming Heavyweight Extravaganza on Wednesday, July 26th, at the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center in New York City. The main event will feature Shannon Briggs (47-4-1, 41 KOs) fighting Darroll Wilson (27-8-2, 21 KOs), and David Tua (44-3-1, 38 KOs) will fight on the undercard. Also appearing is Brooklyn’s undefeated Cindy Serrano (12-0-1), fighting in her home city for the first time in her pro career.

The afternoon was started off by Cedric Kushner, who informed the attendees that the 26th would mark the beginning of his recent involvement with the legendary Winky Wright’s promotions team to co-produce fights. Also present was Boxing Commissioner Ron Stevens, who looked forward to the event, saying it was “great for boxing, and great for New York.”

Briggs was relaxed and easygoing as he stood up, warning the room in advance that “I’ve fought over fifty fights and I haven’t gotten any better at talking.” Self-deprecation aside, he was not a bad speaker; Briggs has several related goals, and had no trouble articulating them: “I came back [from a several-year hiatus] to be the heavyweight champion, a mega-superstar, and the way to do that is to knock guys out.” Elaborating, Briggs explained that this was not simply flashy bravado but a genuine strategy. Although defending the much-belabored current heavyweight division as “not as bad as

they say it is,” he is very aware that it needs the sort of symbol that it has not had for twenty years, since Tyson’s reign – and a symbol that less exciting champions such as Lennox Lewis or Wladimir Klitchko have proved unable to become. Briggs rightly perceives that to fans – especially the more casual fans that boxing to an extent depends on – knockouts tend to trump decisions, and many would rather see someone hit the canvas hard in round six than give a good fight to the twelfth. This, says Briggs, is where he can be of service, and for proof is quick to point to his 11-0 record since his comeback – all, of course, by KO. Speaking to him, it is hard not to agree, for at 6’4” and 270 lbs, Shannon Briggs is one of the larger people you’ll come across. Boxing has brought Briggs a long way since he took it up as a homeless seventeen year old living on the streets in Brooklyn – to fame, respect, money, and even several stints in Hollywood. But to hear him speak, he is just as hungry and determined as ever to become the heavyweight champ and the sport’s next true celebrity.

David Tua is a different sort of person than Briggs. Although both boxers seem like genuinely nice guys (a feeling their opponents would perhaps disagree with after a round or two) and spare you the stream of boastful arrogance and trash-talking that so many fighters today use as their interpretation of good PR, Tua is more soft-spoken, more reserved than Briggs. Quite short for a heavyweight at just under 5’10”, the impression fades as you approach and get a betters sense of his broad shoulders and massive torso; asked how old he is, he replied “thirty-three going on eighteen” with a laugh. With a long and impressive career, Tua nonetheless admits he feels that as of yet he hasn’t lived up to his potential, and perhaps this is true. If so, it is something he plans on changing. Coming, like Briggs, off of several years away from the sport, Tua says that the time allowed him to “make lots of changes…to go back to the basic fundamentals” of boxing. “I’m a slugger,” he explained, “but I’ve gone back to the sweet science…to have a good punch, you gotta have a good jab.” Tua is indeed a natural puncher, as his 80% KO ratio will attest to, and it was interesting to hear him lay so much stress on the ‘other half’ of the sport. Ironically, Tua never wanted to box, but was “forced into it by my dad” beginning at age seven. His father/trainer would, he semi-fondly remembers, “line up grown-up dudes for me to fight, and he kept bringing them in ‘till I could beat them.” Hating it at the time, he only later “realized it had prepared me” and by age thirteen, in New Zealand, he was fighting boxers eighteen years and older in Senior bouts. Two decades later, Tua says he is “happier, more passionate,” and very ready to get back in the ring.

It is hard not to feel a great deal of confidence in both these fighters after speaking to them, but no matter what happens July 26th’s Heavyweight Extravaganza will be, as Stevens said, a great night for New York boxing.