Former heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs has claimed he has an accepted an offer to fight Wladimir Klitschko later this year, which would see the Ukrainian make a sensational comeback to the sport.
Briggs told Sky Sports’ Toe2Toe Podcast that he had this week agreed to fight Klitschko.
The Ukrainian hasn’t fought since April 2017, when he lost to Anthony Joshua via technical knockout for the heavyweight titles.
He subsequently announced his retirement from the sport four months later.
The 45-year-old was one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of his generation. He won the world heavyweight title on two occasions.
Klitschko ranks the likes of David Haye, Alexander Povetkin and Francesco Pianeta amongst his 64 professional victories, with 53 of those coming via knockout.
But, according to Briggs, it seems like he could potentially return to boxing to take on ‘The Cannon’, who himself was a two-time heavyweight champion in the 1990s and 2000s.
He fought Klitschko’s brother Vitali back in 2010 for the WBC title, losing via unanimous decision.
Briggs says he has ‘accepted’ Klitschko fight
Briggs told Sky Sports: “Fate has it as it is, just today I accepted to fight Wladimir Klitschko in his comeback fight.
“You’re the first person to know it, my wife don’t even know this, she’s outside, she don’t even know this.”
He went on to add: “They just called me today, I wanna say an hour ago, two hours ago, and said, ‘Hey, you wanna fight Wladimir Klitschko?’
“I said, ‘Yeah’.
“I haven’t even told anybody yet, I’ve been on the phone with my other businesses. They didn’t have to ask my twice.
“As soon as they called me and asked, ‘Would you like to fight Klitschko?’ I said, ‘Let’s go, champ!'”
Klitschko is yet to respond to Briggs’s statement, so we’ll have to wait and see how this story develops over the coming days and weeks.
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