GM: Now you mentioned Larry Merchant.\u00a0 Is he doing anything outside of just negative press on the HBO broadcast, or are there more inside things that the general public doesn\u2019t know about?<\/strong><\/p>\nIn my opinion, I don\u2019t have a clue what this guy is.\u00a0 When I fought Foreman, they said that I was picked from a list of thirty people and Foreman picked me, thinking that he could beat me.\u00a0 When I was coming from the dressing room to the ring, Merchant said: \u201cThis guy was homeless and was hustling playing chess a few years ago in the park for money.\u201d\u00a0 I sent him an email and said, what was the purpose of that?\u00a0 I was homeless.\u00a0 My mother was a heroin addict.\u00a0 My father was in prison, serving life at the time.\u00a0 So, I was a fifteen year old kid, playing chess for money, and putting myself through high school, sleeping in the street, sleeping on the train.\u00a0 He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.\u00a0 He went to college.\u00a0 He has parents.\u00a0 Why did he have to make the discouraging remarks about me?\u00a0 What did I do to deserve to be crucified on national television with Larry Merchant acting as if it was my fault?<\/p>\n
Then to say that Foreman picked me out of all of those guys is disrespecting George and he was working for the network at the time.\u00a0 Over the years, this guy has proven that he doesn\u2019t like Shannon Briggs.\u00a0 Every time that there is a bad decision in boxing, he says that: \u201cThis is almost as bad as the Shannon Briggs-George Foreman debacle.\u201d\u00a0 Let it go all ready.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to feed my family.<\/p>\n
Larry Merchant thinks he is boxing.\u00a0 He also feels like he created the sport, and he\u2019s at the controls.\u00a0 He wants you to listen and do what he says, and what hurts me about that is that I\u2019ve seen men degrade themselves. They kiss up to him because they know that he\u2019ll say something.\u00a0 We all know that it was him or Tyson and HBO stuck with him, and they showed that Tyson was just a @#$@% and that\u2019s all he will ever be.<\/p>\n
Mike Tyson is what brought Showtime to its prominence.\u00a0 When him and Don King were forced to Showtime, it proved that they look at you as just a bunch of #%##$%$# and that they are still in control.\u00a0 With that being said, Larry Merchant knows that and he treats people like that.\u00a0 I have seen fighters kiss his ass left and right because they know that if you don\u2019t, you won\u2019t be back.\u00a0 Just like Shannon Briggs.\u00a0 You won\u2019t be back.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a hustler. I\u2019ve been in movies: Transporter 2, Bad Boys 2, and I don\u2019t have a publicist. I promote myself.\u00a0 I kiss babies, help old ladies across the streets, I shake hands\u2026I do whatever I have to do to feed my family.\u00a0 I don\u2019t commit crimes.\u00a0 I don\u2019t do drugs or drink.\u00a0 I\u2019m a positive person.\u00a0 These people that have gone against me and have painted me the bad guy\u2026I could tell you stories about all of them and what they have done to myself and other fighters behind the scenes.\u00a0 It\u2019s not talked about.\u00a0 This is why Shannon Briggs cannot get on national television.<\/p>\n
GM: It is a shock that you haven\u2019t been on national television.\u00a0 Do you believe that it\u2019s the back room dealings that\u2019s causing it?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m an exciting fighter\u2026say what you want.\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t I on ESPN?\u00a0 Why am I not on Fox?\u00a0 Why am I not on Showtime?\u00a0 I had to go to Don King.\u00a0 They wouldn\u2019t let me on HBO\u2026why?\u00a0 Say what you want, but I\u2019m coming to knock the guy out and if I get knocked out in the process, guess what, big deal!\u00a0 I\u2019m coming to give the fans an exciting fight.\u00a0 You know, when I fought McCline, I had the bad back and weighed 280 pounds, and I didn\u2019t want to go through with the fight, but I knew that if I had pulled out of the fight, they would have never allowed me back on television, and they didn\u2019t allow me back anyway.\u00a0 I had to go and fight in K-1.<\/p>\n
GM: What are your recollections of the Jameel McCline bout?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe guy was terrified of me.\u00a0 The entire fight, he was running from me, and I couldn\u2019t catch him because I had a bad back and he knew it, but I came to fight and I was chasing him.\u00a0 After the fight, they act like I was the worst thing ever to put on boxing gloves.\u00a0 I\u2019m the best personality in boxing.\u00a0 I\u2019m the most personable guy in boxing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have an agent, and I\u2019ve been in two major motion pictures.\u00a0 I did a movie called \u201cThe Retirement\u201d with Peter Faulk, Rip Torn, and Coolio that will be coming out soon.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have an agent.\u00a0 I go out there and try to make it happen for my family.\u00a0 You hear Shannon Briggs this and Shannon Briggs that, but I\u2019ve got a trick for them.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to be Heavyweight Champ of the World and then they will have to come and talk to me.<\/p>\n
GM: You contacted me in regards to some rather critical things that I said in my segment \u201cGeno\u2019s Boxing Corner.\u201d\u00a0 Do you often contact writers when you believe that they haven\u2019t given you a fair shake?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou know, I want to say that there is no disrespect to you, and I usually don\u2019t respond to articles, but when I read your article, I thought that it was a little bit harsh.\u00a0 I will tell you a quick story.\u00a0 I met a writer that was actually in high school and it was his first boxing show\u2026I think that it was Roy Jones, JR., versus Merqui Sosa at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0 He was sitting next to me and I was sitting somewhere way up in the stands somewhere, and he was like: \u201cOh my God, you\u2019re Shannon Briggs.\u00a0 Can I sit with you?\u201d\u00a0 He watched the entire card with me.\u00a0 We had a great time and he said that it was the first article that he had ever done and it was for his high school newspaper and he couldn\u2019t believe that he had met me.\u00a0 He asked if he could interview me, and I gave him my number and said no problem.\u00a0 This was in like 1996 or 1997.\u00a0 Years later, he graduated high school, went on to college, and became a boxing writer.\u00a0 In about 2000, I had seen that he had written an article about me, and it was so bad.\u00a0 It was the worst type of article that you could imagine.<\/p>\n
So, he sees me and he\u2019s so different and cocky because he\u2019s a big boxing writer now.\u00a0 I walked up to him and said: How are you doing, and he said: \u201cHow you doing Shannon,\u201d in a patronizing way.\u00a0 I told him that I read the article that he had written about me and that it was @$#@$## up.\u00a0 I told him that first, he was a young, black man and what he wrote was so negative toward black people.\u00a0 He disrespected me, and I talked to this kid, but first, I wanted to slap him.\u00a0 I said: Let me explain something to you.\u00a0 You came to me in high school as a shy kid, and gave you an interview\u2026sat with you, and you called me many times afterward, and I was always nice to you.\u00a0 You realized that if you wanted to get an article printed, you had to write a negative one about Shannon Briggs.<\/p>\n
He said that I was 100% right and that he had no reason.\u00a0 He wrote that I was nothing and wasn\u2019t ever going to be anything.\u00a0 It was just totally negative.\u00a0 He said that I was never going to be a success as a fighter.\u00a0 I\u2019m already a success.\u00a0 I slept in the shelter.\u00a0 I slept on a train.\u00a0 I had to go without meals and eat what other people didn\u2019t want to eat.\u00a0 I live in a million dollar home with a pool.\u00a0 I\u2019m already a success.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t make another dollar, I\u2019m successful because I made it out of Brownsville.\u00a0 I have two kids, a beautiful wife\u2026she looks like a super model.\u00a0 I do very well.\u00a0 My son goes to private school.\u00a0 This is all from a guy that had nothing.\u00a0 I would sleep on a friend\u2019s couch or somebody\u2019s floor, and it hurts me to see people be so negative, when I\u2019m the true American success story.\u00a0 I could be in prison, could be selling drugs, or I could be dead, but I never gave up.\u00a0 My mother died on my birthday, December 4th<\/sup>, 1996, but I never gave up.<\/p>\nMost people couldn\u2019t survive like I survived.\u00a0 They would have folded. Most people resort to crime or just go lay down.\u00a0 I\u2019m a fighter.\u00a0 I may not be the greatest, but I\u2019m the latest.\u00a0 That\u2019s my motto: \u201cI may not be the greatest, but I\u2019m the latest.\u201d<\/p>\n
GM: In Teddy Atlas\u2019s book, he mentioned something to the effect that you and he ran into some trouble in the south and you had to fight.\u00a0 What happened there?<\/strong><\/p>\nSome racist guys came up to me in Mississippi and grabbed my hair and said that he didn\u2019t like dreadlocks.\u00a0 He actually grabbed my hair and Teddy came to my defense and the guy ended up attacking us and we beat the $%@#$ of him.\u00a0 It was hell because we were in a little small town and before you know it, part of the police came out with shotguns in the backs of pick ups. It was crazy.\u00a0 Our lives were on the line.\u00a0 It was a hell of a night.<\/p>\n
GM: I was recently watching the Bowe-Golota bout from the garden in New York.\u00a0 After the fight, there was that riot that had broken out, and I noticed you in the crowd.\u00a0 Was anyone foolish enough during the riot to try to exchange punches with you?<\/strong><\/p>\nNot at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m from Brooklyn baby.\u00a0 I live for a brawl.\u00a0 I saved Tom Hauser in the crowd.\u00a0 I thought that he was going to get hurt.\u00a0 I was a big fan of Hauser, so I ran down to make sure that he was all right, and I made sure that another brother that I knew from D.C. was all right. He was in a wheel chair.\u00a0 You know, that was a bad night for boxing, but you know what?\u00a0 People are too down on boxing.\u00a0 We need positive press.\u00a0 That is why all of these other sports are thriving.\u00a0 You look at the NFL, NHL, NBA, and you cannot talk or write negative about these sports.\u00a0 The biggest scandal was the steroids in baseball.\u00a0 For the most part, it brought attention to baseball and people want to see homeruns.\u00a0 To me baseball is boring, and you want to see homeruns.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not going to see the guy knock it out of the park, what are you going for?<\/p>\n
GM: So, what does boxing have to do to bring it back to its glory days?<\/strong><\/p>\nIn my opinion, boxing needs to clean up the writing and coverage.\u00a0 It has become fashionable to write negative about fighters and about fights and organizations.\u00a0 Forget about it.\u00a0 The WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and IBO: let\u2019s leave them alone.\u00a0 They are great for boxing.\u00a0 People want to see one world champion.\u00a0 It\u2019s not going to happen.\u00a0 Let it go.\u00a0 So, let the organizations have as many champions as they want and then hopefully, the champs will get together and unify.\u00a0 That will be great.\u00a0 Don King put together a heavyweight tournament that crowned Mike Tyson the undisputed champion.\u00a0 They should let him do it again.\u00a0 I\u2019m on the Don side now and I\u2019m the biggest promoter of Don King ever.\u00a0 He is the greatest promoter that has ever lived.\u00a0 He has come to my rescue and I appreciate that.\u00a0 He\u2019s always been good at what he does and don\u2019t be fooled.\u00a0 All the promoters do the same bull#%$^.<\/p>\n
Like I said, the writers need to change.\u00a0 They have to look at boxing positively, and that\u2019s when people will come to the sport.\u00a0 I hear a guy like Larry Merchant say something like: \u201cThis is terrible for the sport\u2026blah blah blah,\u201d and people believe it and stay away.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the President.\u00a0 Whatever he says, people believe.\u00a0 \u201cIraq has weapons of mass destruction,\u201d and people believe him.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t found one weapon yet!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nGM: You have mentioned Larry Merchant a few times.\u00a0 Do you feel like many that the HBO team is biased and are cheerleaders for their house fighters?<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nExactly\u2026that\u2019s how they are with Wladimir. \u00a0Listen to this. This is how bad this sport is.\u00a0 They were so bad that they dying for him to fight Maskaev.\u00a0 Maskaev is 37 years old, was in a grueling fight with Rahman, and they wanted him to go immediately back to training camp so that Wladimir could get his belt, and unify the titles.\u00a0 They were offering this guy up to 3-point something million dollars just to murder his ass just to get the belt.\u00a0 They want Klitschko to have the unified championship.\u00a0 This is just how bias and heartless they are.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t care that this guy had a bad back and had just fought a grueling fight and that he had a bad thumb and a bad elbow.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t care.\u00a0 They wanted Wlad to kill this guy and get the WBC Title, and then the IBF Belt, so they can say that he is the world champion.<\/p>\n
This guy got knocked out by Brewster. He got knocked out by Ross Puritty.\u00a0 He got knocked out by Corrie Sanders.\u00a0 He went down three times from punches from Sam Peter that didn\u2019t even look like they landed.\u00a0 He was flopping on the ground like a big fish and you sit up here and say that he\u2019s a great champion?<\/p>\n
You know that the boxing business has got to change and you know who is going to change it?\u00a0 You guys.\u00a0 You guys are really in control right now.\u00a0 They say that boxing is a dying sport and it is, and it\u2019s because the writers are not supporting the sport.\u00a0 In any other sport, if a commentator ragged and ragged on a player, the next day, they would have their job.\u00a0 Larry Merchant wouldn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
GM: Do you have any final words for the fans?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou know my day is coming and I am going to give my all.\u00a0 I\u2019m in a tough fight but I\u2019m going in there to knock him out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exclusive Interview by Geno McGahee (2006) There are very few heavyweights that are marketable.\u00a0 Most of the men in the division do not draw the fans, as evident by the very low PPV rentals of the WBC Heavyweight Championship bout between Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev.\u00a0 The recent news of Mike Tyson putting on exhibitions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10394],"class_list":["post-39484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-heavyweight-shannon-briggs-a-look-back-boxing-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39484"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}