Briggs dominates Drews!

August 15, 2004

By Ray Wheatley -- World of Boxing

Paul Briggs (23-1) became the WBC #1 light heavyweight contender to champion Antonio Tarver with a clear twelve round decision over WBC#3 Stipe Drews (26-1) at the Homebush Sports Centre, Sydney, NSW, Australia on Sunday. Scores were Marty Sammon 117-105, James Jenkins 113-109 and Kazumasa Kuwata 115-109.

Drews started the contest well, scoring with accurate right jabs on the backmove. Briggs, who continually attempted to find the range for his power shots, was behind on points going into round six when a powerful left hook to the jaw dropped the 6'5 Croatian for an eight count. The Australian, urged on by his American trainer Jack Mosley to finish Drews, connected with a head shot to once again floor the giant import. Drews beat the count and responded by kneeing Briggs in the groin. USA Referee Lawrence Cole quickly deducted a point from Drews.vShortly after, Drews repeated this action again by placing his knee in Briggs groin.

In round seven Briggs deposited Drews on the canvas with a solid right hand shot - but the vistor boxed on the backmove to survive the round.

Briggs attacked consistently throughout round eight but had trouble connecting with solid shots on the backmoving southpaw. In round nine Drews kneed Briggs in the groin again and referee Cole deducted another point. At this point the visitor must have been very close to being disqualified.

Round ten had both fighters exchanging solid combinations when their heads clashed - Drews turning his back in obvious pain - both boxers returning to swapping hard blows to the bell sounded.

Drews was scoring with clean long range punches when he clinched and headbutted Briggs in round eleven - referee Cole deducting another point from the visitor. Drews scored with accurate right and left hands during round twelve keeping Briggs off balance until the bell rang.

Briggs displayed world class power in this contest against a boxer who easily defeated former WBA 175 pound champion Silvio Branco. WBC champion Antonio Tarver should not take Briggs lightly - he has good skills and can certainly punch.

In the main support, IBF#6 Lovemore Ndou (39-7-1) won the vacant IBF Pan Pacific 140 pound title when he dominated Ruben Diaz (13-8-1), having him on the deck compliments of a left rip in round five. The import retired at the conclusion of the fifth stanza. Ndou scored with effective combinations in all rounds contested - Diaz being cautioned for holding in round three by referee Charlie Lucas.

Ndou said, afterward "I want to thank my trainer Jeff Fenech and my sponsors Rob Aslan and Sam Annous for their support."

Jr middleweight Antov Solopov (7-0) scored a knockout in round one over Harmen Adjadato (4-6). The former Russian boxer dropped the Indonesian with a barrage of puches and referee Brad Fredicks crowned the Russian. Solopov is in the same stable as Kostya Tszyu and reportedly holds a amateur victory over Miguel Cotto.

Australian middleweight champion Sakio Bika (17-1) outworked Rico Chong Knee (9-6-1) over six rounds by scores of 60-54,60-54 and 60-55. Bika, formerly of the Cameroon, has lost only to the IBF#1 Sam Soliman.

German Khoren Gevorgyan stopped former Australian middleweight champion Ian McLeod (20-14-1) when McLeod retired at the conclusion of round five with an injured hand.

Heavyweight Mark De Mori (5-0-1) dropped Steve Kilarski with a body shot for the full ten count at 43 seconds of round two.

Former amateur champion Bilal Dibb forced a fourth round stoppage win over Nagin Guruma of Malaysia in a lightweight bout.

The card was presented by d-Rush Promotions, matchmaker Steve Dellar.