Shannon Briggs is no stranger to a knockout.
The former WBO and lineal heavyweight champion scored 53 of them during his 68-fight (60-6-1-1) career, including 37 in the first round – a record high for gloved boxing.
But even he was terrified when he left American fringe contender Dicky Ryan sprawled out against the bottom rope in 2006.
There is no footage of the knockout but Briggs claims he clocked Ryan with a clubbing right that left his adversary out cold for 15 minutes.
“I had a few vicious knockouts that I was scared I might have done something horrific to a person,” Briggs told talkSPORT.com.
“One dude I hit, he was sleeping for 15 minutes but I was scared, I thought something happened to him.
“But it was a pretty one, you should have seen that right hand, I threw it straight like an arrow. Straight down the pipe.
“Look at me, I’m sick, I’m smiling… I hit this boy so hard he is still asleep.
“[His name was] Dicky Ryan, vicious. It was so bad, I was worried.
“I knocked him out and he was unconscious on the bottom rope.
“His body was twisted, hanging out the ring. But you know it could happen to me so I’ve got to make sure it happens to them and not me.”
Ryan hung up his gloves after getting stopped by Hasim Rahman in his next fight while Briggs went on to score a last-gasp KO win over Siarhei Liakhovich to scoop the WBO heavyweight title.
He dropped the belt to Sultan Ibragimov a year later and failed at becoming a two-time heavyweight champion against Vitali Klitschko before his career was halted by a failed drug test in 2017 ahead of a clash with Fres Oquendo.
Briggs hasn’t fought since and is now 52 years old, yet he vehemently insists that he isn’t retired just yet.
“I’m not retired, it’s just that nobody wants to fight me,” Briggs added.
“I’m just inactive because they are scared. They’re scared of me champ. I’m looking to fight in March…
“I was going to beat up David Haye but he is scared. I saw David Haye at a restaurant last night and I was going to knock him out but he was with his son.
“I will fight anybody, I will fight Chisora but they don’t want to fight me champ.
“I’ve got the most first-round knockouts in boxing history, it is for a reason.
“They swept me under the rug and said ‘Let’s leave him alone, if we ignore him, he will go away.”
Shannon is the founder of the Brownsville Boxing Gym & Academy, a non-profit initiative that provides boxing training and wider education classes to young people in Brownsville, Brooklyn. You can learn more about the cause here.
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