SHANNON BRIGGS is making a boxing comeback at the age of 51 and boasted that he is “still an animal”.
Briggs, a former WBO world champion, was a feared puncher during his prime and scored 37 first-round knockouts.
But he was beaten by quality operators in Lennox Lewis – who scored a KO in 1998 – and Vitali Klitschko.
Briggs boxed up until 2016, stopping Emilio Zarate and then campaigning to fight David Haye.
Talks later broke down as Haye claimed the American wanted the bout on pay-per-view.
Briggs would spend years linked with a return against the likes of Lucas Browne, Alexander Ustinov and Fres Oquendo but the fights never came off.
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In 2017, he was suspended for six months by the WBA after a failed drug tests for high levels of testosterone.
Briggs also tried to organise exhibitions with boxing icon Mike Tyson and UFC legend Rampage Jackson to no success.
Although he has now claimed his return is back on during a podcast interview with old rival Jackson.
Briggs said: “The only reason I haven’t been active is nobody will fight me. They scared.
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“Listen, look at my resume. I’m 51, 000 years old and I still hit hard, I’m still an animal, look at me.
“You don’t lose power, no power lost and I can still take a punch.”
Briggs wants to fight for the world title once more and could try and break George Foreman’s record as oldest heavyweight champ, which is 46.
He said: “I’m coming back, yeah. This is my first fight. I’ll go on a ten fight run – that’s my goal.
“Yeah, I want to get back in shape, Champ. I want to give myself about a year of two, fight myself back into shape, and then I wanna go for something big, I want real boxers.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
