Briggs v Green a dirty brown stain

On my Prospect Scotting blog I've made a passing reference to some upcoming fights, one of which I'm actually against. Danny Green v Paul Briggs which takes place in Australia in just a few weeks for the IBO Cruiserweight title is one of those few fights I genuinely don't like the look of for a host of reasons. Despite the fact it's almost certainly the biggest fight likely to take place in Australia that doesn't involve Anthony Mundine or Kostya Tszyu making a comeback that doesn't mean it should take place it's self.

Late last year it was difficult to avoid Green's name when he exploded out of obscurity inside a round by beating Roy Jones Jr into what many assumed would be retirement. Since the Green has failed to really build on it and it seems he failed to strike when the iron was hot instead seeing possible fights with Bernard Hopkins fall through and no movement onto the likes of Steve Cunningham and Marco Huck. Green's career stalled. Instead of cashing in he stumbled into a match with the one time Super Middleweight title holder Manny Siaca and had an easy nights work in an obscure battle that, to be frankly honest, no one outside of Australia seemed to care about that saw Green move to 29-3.

With attempts to lure the aforementioned Mundine into a rematch from their 2006 battle failing Green would end up luring out of retirement the ever popular all action tough guy Paul “Hurricane” Briggs. Briggs hasn't fought since February 2007 when he out pointed Rupert van Aswegen in a battle at Light Heavyweight and had seen several comeback attempts foiled by medical issues that now seem to have magically vanished. The fight takes places just weeks before Briggs (26-3) turns 35 and after weeks away from active fighting and moving up a division it just looks odd.

As a younger fresher faced fighter Briggs was a true blood and guts warrior, his two fights with the exciting Tomasz Adamek were certainly amongst the best fights of 2005 and 2006 even if Briggs was the loser on both occasions. It seemed as if the Hurricane was on the way to being a fan favourite, all action, boundless energy and the heart of a champion though he just vanished as he was on the cusp. Since his last fight he has worked for Australian TV for most of their major fights and on the Australian Contender show as well as seeing several comebacks fall through, though now it seems like this ones going to happen.

If we're happy to accept Briggs as a true blood and guts type of fighter, we also need to accept his defence wasn't the greatest (he had a very solid chin however) whilst in Green we find a fighter with 26KO's in 29 wins a true power puncher who had Roy Jones down the first time he landed a shot of note. Green has 7 stoppage wins in his last 8 contests with only the iron chinned Stipe Drews from Croatia managing to survive the schedule in over 4 years. Oddly Drews has been beaten by both men on points, with the loss to Green being the final fight of Stipes career. If Briggs wants to be a warrior and go toe to toe Danny Green isn't the sort of fighter you want to do it against, especially not in the circumstances.

No warm up, no fights in years, medical problems, going up a weight, facing a hard puncher the IBO trinket on the line, how can this be allowed? Although Briggs was someone I looked up to and have enjoyed looking over the career of, I can't help but think that this is going to be a painful night for a man that has always been a fighter. I would love it if Paul could do the job, but I can't see it, I see the fight lasting as long as the referee lets it and yet the fight will do huge numbers (as far as Australian boxing goes).

Shame really that Mundine has ran away down the divisions going from a 2 time WBA Super Middleweight champion to the Light Middleweight chump hiding from true challenges.