Heavyweight contender Shannon Briggs (47-4-1, 41 KOs) knocked out Chris Koval (23-3, 18 KOs) last night at the Manhattan Center after three rounds of toying with his opponent. Koval was tough and has heart but was clearly mismatched against the bigger and better Briggs. Briggs showed up to fight at a career high in weight (273), but still looking in decent shape, heavier than Koval but also leaner. 

ROUND ONE: He came out in the first round smoking, moving around the out-of-shape Koval like he was a heavy bag.  Briggs threw an accurate and sneaky jab, fast for a heavyweight, laughing at Koval and frustrating him, causing Koval to react in emotional anger.  This made for some good exchanges of punches.  Briggs easily won the round.

ROUND TWO: Briggs again dominated the second with his fast jab. He took his time with Koval, who was getting more agitated by the minute.  Koval, emotional and angry, was probably not used to this treatment in the past, and aggressively ran at Briggs.  But try as he might his efforts were to no avail against the better, bigger, and more experienced boxer. Had Briggs decided to follow up with a hard right hand left hook after his incessant jab, he might have ended the bout in the second, but why not give the audience what they paid for?

ROUND THREE: The third round was more of the same until the frustrated Koval spit at Briggs.  Briggs then decided to throw more power shots and that was that.  Briggs knocked Koval down twice, the later hitting the mat the second time with a loud ring shaking thud, getting up with blood literally spurting out of his mouth and nose (clearly broken) like a faucet.  For some reason the ref decided it should go on, but the bell rang a few seconds later and Koval’s corner stopped it on advice of the doctor during the break.