Columnist Dean Juipe: Botha, Briggs battle for right to face champ

Dean Juipe

Thursday, July 29, 1999 | 10:23 a.m.

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Heavyweights will always be at the top of boxing fans' list of favorites, so much so that even good heavyweights with a few losses can make a decent living.

That's the case with the Aug. 7 fight on pay-per-view from Atlantic City that has Frans Botha taking on Shannon Briggs in a match that will push one toward millionaire's status while removing the other as a legitimate cash cow.

Each man is receiving $400,000 for this fight, which is good money considering Botha is 39-2 and coming off a loss to Mike Tyson while Briggs is 31-2 and a loser to Lennox Lewis and, earlier, journeyman Darroll Wilson.

To the victor, however, will go the spoils of a future fight with one of the champions or, in Briggs' case, maybe even Tyson.

"He talks a good game but I don't know if he fights a good game," Botha said Wednesday during a conference call from his training camp in Big Bear, Calif., where, coincidentally, Briggs is also training.

"I don't see it going the distance," Botha said. "I'm in shape and I'm going to put the pressure on him. I just know if I connect, he's out of there."

In earlier conference calls, both Briggs and his trainer, Emanuel Steward, have said they expect Botha to come into the ring looking for a knockout.

"Botha is more of a brawler type," Steward said. "I think he's going to try to intimidate Briggs, and Briggs can't let it become a wrestling match."

Briggs maintains that if Botha is head hunting, it will work to his advantage.

"Botha's so slow, I doubt he can even hit me," Briggs said. "He's definitely the perfect opponent for me. I'll beat him with my jab, my reach, my strength. He's the perfect guy for me to display my skills."

Steward, true to his say-it-like-it-is form, chastised his own man for previous lapses and has been pushing Briggs to reach his full potential.

"Briggs is definitely not overconfident," Steward said. "He knows Botha doesn't think he has the interest, the stamina or the desire. Shannon is going to have to answer a lot of questions.

"Sooner or later you've got to win a fight over a credible fighter and that hasn't happened yet with Briggs. He lost his other two big fights. He lost to George Foreman and he lost to Lennox Lewis. In those fights I thought he had the talent to win, but I think he was a kid who didn't have the desire at the time.

"He doesn't have any credibility with the general public."

(Don't take Steward's remark that Briggs lost to Foreman too literally. In truth, while everyone but the judges thought Foreman defeated Briggs Nov. 22, 1997 in Atlantic City, the actual verdict was Briggs by decision.)

Briggs acknowledges his reputation leaves something to be desired but says he's working to correct it.

"I don't want to go down as a guy who almost made it," he said. "That's not what I'm in the business for. I'm looking to become a champion and I've matured physically and mentally."

Briggs also wants to fight Tyson and a win over Botha -- who was beating Tyson on the judges' cards until losing by fifth-round knockout Jan. 16 in Las Vegas -- would increase his chances of landing the lucrative bout.

"Hopefully, that fight will materialize after I win this one," Briggs said. "It would be great to fight him in New York."

Of course Botha still has a rematch with Tyson in the back of his mind, although it seems unlikely it would come to pass. Nonetheless, he learned a good deal about himself as a fighter in those five rounds with Tyson.

"That fight taught me not to get too cocky," he said. "It taught me one punch can ruin a fight. You never count your chickens before they're hatched, and that's what I was doing."

* OWENS-MAYWEATHER: Last week in this space Roger Mayweather commented that he was hoping to knock out Leroy Owens when the two Las Vegans meet Aug. 7 in Lafayette, La. They're scheduled for 10 rounds at 150 pounds.

"I saw that and thought to myself that after all those fights, Roger must have lost something to think he's going to knock me out," Owens said with a laugh Wednesday. "He was a great champion and this is nothing personal, but what he said was just talk."

Owens vs. Mayweather pits two veterans nearing the end of the line in a fight that could be interesting but could just as easily turn out to be awful. Mayweather is 59-13 and Owens, the definitive journeyman "opponent," is 18-31-4.

"This is my last year of boxing," said Owens, who just turned 35. "I'm happy and God has blessed me. But I'm going to quit after this year and maybe manage some fighters or book some fights, like I did (recently) with Joe Hipp and Everett Martin in St. Louis."

He said fighting Mayweather could be fun and he wishes the bout was scheduled for Las Vegas.

"Why couldn't it be here?" he said. "This is where we're both pretty well known.

"So it will be kind of strange to go down there and fight him, but we'll shake hands afterward. Roger has had a great career and I'm a guy who's known as pretty tough and who hardly gets stopped at all.

"Even with all my losses, I've never gotten discouraged. I can take a pretty good punch and I'll show Roger I can move a lot faster than him."

* ADAMS APPEASED: A pair of Las Vegas-based fighters have decided they want trainer Kenny Adams back in their corner, and they are expected to sign a contractual agreement with him.

WBA featherweight champ Freddie Norwood and top-rated IBF 130-pound contender Diego Corrales developed under Adams but left him this spring when he refused to "babysit" them, as their booking agent put it. But now with Norwood set to begin workouts in preparation for a difficult Sept. 11 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez at Mandalay Bay and with Corrales prepping for a fight with IBF champ Robert Garcia, Adams is back in the picture.

"They called me back in," he said this week. "I'm going to make them sign a contract, though. Most trainers don't have contracts with fighters, but we will. We're going to sit down and have a long conversation about it, and I'm going to tell them what I will and will not do, and they can tell me likewise.

"But, basically, we'll spell out the particulars and I'll do my job and I expect them to do theirs and we won't have any more confrontations."

Adams will be replacing Miguel Diaz, who had replaced Adams.

"I'm the one that molded both of them, especially Diego," Adams said. "So why should someone else reap the benefits?"

* QUICK HITS: Adams currently is training Isreal Cardona at a ranch near Mt. Charleston. Cardona is fighting fellow lightweight Paul Spadafora Aug. 20 in Maine. ... While the manager for Montell Griffin said last week he was interested in getting his man on an upcoming Las Vegas card, those plans have changed and Griffin is stepping in to face Dariusz Michalczewski Aug. 28 in Germany. Griffin is 38-2 and Michalczewski is 40-0. Original opponent David Telesco pulled out with a swollen eye. ... The boxing portion of the Pan American Games begins today and Henderson resident Jason Ingwaldson is participating at 132 pounds.

Las Vegas heavyweight Jorge Luis Gonzalez improved to 29-5 Sunday in Kansas City by stopping Tommy Martin, 14-2, in the ninth round. It was knockout No. 27 for Gonzalez. ... On that same card, Las Vegas light heavyweight Derrick Harmon upped his record to 17-1 by taking a decision over Ray Berry, 18-3-1. The judges had Harmon up by 8, 6 and 5 points. ... Another part-time Las Vegan, heavyweight Duncan Dokiwari, was also on that Kansas City card and needed less than a round to dispose of journeyman Mathew Brooks. Dokiwari is 14-1. ... Promoter Dan Goossen will formally announce an Aug. 28 card at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas today that will feature WBA junior middleweight champ David Reid vs. ex-champ Keith Mullings. Reid is 14-0 while Mulllings is 16-5-1.

Tickets go on sale today at eight local casinos that will be showing the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad fight on closed circuit Sept. 18. De La Hoya vs. Trinidad, which will take place at Mandalay Bay, will be available via closed circuit at the Flamingo Hilton, the Las Vegas Hilton, Caesars Palace, the Monte Carlo, Paris, the Luxor, the Excalibur and Circus Circus. Tickets at each are $50. ... Tickets go on sale Saturday for the Sept. 11 card at Mandalay Bay that has Floyd Mayweather meeting Carlos Gerena as well as Norwood vs. Marquez. Prices range from $25 to $200.