BRIGGS FALLS FOR FIRST TIME

[pies4ever]

Briggs falls for first time
March 7, 2004

A DISAPPOINTED Paul Briggs will head to America to prepare for his world title shot after surviving the first knockdown of his professional career to win a title eliminator against tough Mexican Jesus Ruiz at Panthers in Sydney today.

Queenslander Briggs, the No.2 contender for the World Boxing Council title, was knocked down by a right-hand in the second round from Ruiz, the eighth-rated contender.

The Australian rallied over the second half of the 12-round fight to win by four points on the cards of Australian judge Brad Vocale (117-113), and Philippines-based judge Bruce McTavish (116-112) and by a single point (114-113) on the card of Mexican judge Victor Cervantes.

On a successful day for Australian boxing, three world-rated local fighters, middleweight Sam Soliman, junior middleweight Shannan Taylor and junior welterweight Lovemore Ndou all retained their International Boxing Federation Pan Pacific titles with comfortable victories against overseas opposition.

Briggs will find out over the next few weeks who he will fight for the title with champion Roy Jones still deliberating over whether to press ahead with a WBC mandated rematch against fellow American Antonia Tarver.

Briggs, who today notched his 21st straight win and improved his overall record to 22 victories (18KOs) and one loss, was disappointed with his performance and felt the decision might have been different had the fight been held elsewhere.

He bounced back to his feet quickly after the knockdown and gradually gained control with his quicker jab and some accurate right-hand power punches.

Ruiz, who suffered his fourth loss in 22 professional bouts, occasionally found the mark again, but Briggs evaded many of the Mexican's lunging punches.

Trainer Rod Waterhouse said Briggs ignored the fight plan which had been to pepper the Mexican's body.

"It was probably Paul's worst fight, what he trained for he fought completely differently, it was probably a real bad night for him and we still won," Waterhouse said.

"We knew the bloke was weak downstairs, we trained specifically for that punch in six weeks and he threw only three bodyshots in the whole fight."

Waterhouse said he didn't expect Jones to fight Briggs and thought his charge's world title chance would probably come against either Tarver, International Boxing Federation champ Glengoffe Johnson or Croatian Stipe Drews.

He said irrespective of who Briggs fought for the title he'd probably leave for the United States in three to four weeks.

Waterhouse said they would be based in Los Angeles and work at the West Hollywood gym of famed trainer Freddie Roach for up to three months before the world title fight.

Taylor overcame an injured left wrist to record his sixth straight win with a unanimous points victory over Argentinian Paulo Sanchez.

Soliman recorded his 12th successive victory since his controversial loss to Anthony Mundine when Argentinian opponent Jorge Sclarandi couldn't come out for the eighth round because of a pinched nerve in his neck.

Ndou bounced back from his world title bout eliminator loss to Sharma Mitchell last month with a fourth round KO of Thailand's Kaitchai 13 Coins.

No.1-rated WBC super bantamweight contender Ndal Hussein needed just 61 seconds to knock out Indonesia's Donny Suratin.

Victorian Tosca Petridis won the vacant Australian cruiserweight title when Sydneysider Brett Smith couldn't continue beyond the fifth round because of a cut eye.

Another winner was 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Paul Miller, who extended his unbeaten professional record to four fights with a third round stoppage of Peter Rudd.



cheers bryan..!!