Nine years ago, when Shannon Briggs was going round the UK yelling “Let’s go, Champ!” and seemingly on the cusp of fighting Britain’s David Haye, there was something oddly charming and captivating about the former WBO heavyweight champion. It was 2016, a different time, and Briggs was only 44 years of age. It was all a bit silly, yes, and kind of preposterous, but Briggs’ catchphrase soon caught on and it wasn’t long before everybody was saying it and following the American wherever he went. 

His one fight that year, which took place in London, ended with Briggs knocking out Emilio Ezequiel Zarate inside a round, whereupon he called out Haye, the night’s headliner, and screamed “Let’s go, Champ!” until blue in the face. Haye, for his part, then went on to stop the unknown Arnold Gjergjaj in two rounds only to appear considerably less enthused about sharing the ring with Briggs in the future. Suddenly, though for months it looked inevitable, the battle of faded heavyweights on Dave – a British comedy channel known to run repeats of comedy shows that were never really that funny in the first place – was not quite so appealing to Haye, younger than Briggs by eight years. Suddenly, he had other options, more lucrative ones, and suddenly Briggs started to feel used. Sure enough, 10 months later, the double act officially broke up: Haye fought and lost against Tony Bellew, while Briggs never boxed again. 

In truth, Briggs’ subsequent disappearance from the sport came as no shock. He was, after all, a man in his mid-forties and there was around that time a sense that all his eggs were very much in the Haye basket. Not only that, when he did find another opportunity, this time against Fres Oquendo in 2017, Briggs conspired to make a mess of it by failing a performance-enhancing drug test for elevated levels of testosterone, which led to a six-month ban. 

Regardless, by that stage of his long fighting career Briggs had a reputation more for promotion – that is, self-promotion – than actually fighting, having once stalked Wladimir Klitschko in an effort to secure a fight with him before then doing the same with Haye. He had a voice and he still knew how to use it. He also knew that a fighter’s voice, more so than their punch power, is truly the last thing to go when they approach the end. 

Added to this, Briggs was selling himself at a time when video interviews were all the rage and every boxer could now easily project and tell the world whatever they wanted, with no filter, opposition, or quality control. This meant that a larger-than-life character like Briggs could essentially go rogue and know that his behaviour and antics outside the ring would mean more to people than whatever he produced inside the ring. That’s why he was all of a sudden popular again, 18 years after losing against Lennox Lewis. That’s why he managed to cultivate a new fan base – indeed, a whole new generation of fans – and why he had youngsters saying “Let’s go, Champ!” as though Briggs actually had direction and somewhere to go.

Now, in 2025, after nearly a decade of relative silence, Briggs, at the age of 53, is again making noise. For one, he has just announced a comeback fight, which will reportedly take place in Nashville on July 1 and will be his first appearance in a boxing ring since beating Zarate in London. Secondly, Briggs has his eyes on various targets, one of whom happens to be Deontay Wilder, the 39-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion from Alabama. 

Wilder, like Briggs, has plans to return to the ring this summer, and he too is famous for having both the gift of the gab and a catchphrase. It seems only natural therefore that Briggs, forever in need of a target, would see in Wilder a kindred spirit. 

“I want to fight him,” Briggs said in an interview with Fight Hub TV. “I think it’d be a great one for Alabama when he’s back. I’ve never properly retired; they just won’t fight me. I’m ready to go, so if he’s in, let’s make it happen.”

Rather than thinking about Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs, Wilder is presumably only focusing on Tyrrell Anthony Herndon, the Texan he is set to fight in Wichita on June 27. After that, it remains to be seen what the former WBC champion elects to do, but suffice it to say, he will have better options, and far more lucrative options, than fighting a 53-year-old Shannon Briggs in Alabama in 2025. 

In other words, for all his ambition, it’s likely that Briggs, 60-6-1 (53), will have to look elsewhere for the next man to stalk. He may have to look at men closer to him in age, for instance; either that or acknowledge the growing presence of influencer and YouTube boxing and stagger down that road instead. 

In terms of the latter, there are countless straight-nosed neophytes who would be willing to engage in some verbal back and forth before trying to apply additional damage to Briggs’ brain and body for eight two-minute rounds. As for the other option, Briggs’ apparent allegiance with Jimmy Adams, the promoter behind the Nashville show on July 1, could point to a fight between Briggs and Oliver McCall in the future. McCall, after all, has appeared at the same venue – Texas Troubadour Theatre – of late and is also a former heavyweight champion who finds it easier to say “Let’s go!” than “no”. 

Last year, McCall, 61-14 (40), returned to the ring after a five-and-a-half-year absence to stop Stacy Frazier inside two rounds. He then followed this win with another in February, beating Gary Cobia inside the first, and has given no indication since that he intends to stop anytime soon. 

Rather, McCall, at 59, still wants more. He wants more fights, he wants to throw and receive more punches, and he wants to see how much longer he can taunt and tempt Father Time. He will know, as we all do, that almost 31 years have passed since the night he knocked out Lennox Lewis to win the WBC heavyweight title, yet the past, it seems, has no bearing on what McCall does in the present. 

If anything, McCall, like Briggs, offers proof that incredible longevity is often the cruel “upside” of famed durability and toughness. Because while it perhaps benefits these men in the early years, and allows them to go on much longer than their peers, the gift of superhuman durability never stops giving and also never stops taking.