Lennox Lewis vs. Shannon Briggs Frank Cappuccino stopped the fight and awarded Lewis the victory by technical knockout. Lennox Lewis vs. Shannon Briggs Lennox Lewis vs. Shannon Briggs, billed as "March Badness", was a professional boxing match contested on March 28, 1998 for the WBC and "Lineal" Heavyweight Championships. After Lennox Lewis successfully defended his WBC title in a dominating first round knockout victory over Andrew Golota, the WBC organized an elimination match between "Lineal" champion George Foreman and Shannon Briggs to determine who would become Lewis' next opponent. The match was held on November 22, 1997 and went the full 12 rounds. Though many
Shannon Briggs three judges' scorecards 106–103, 106–103, and 105–104. Briggs pressed the fight in the 12th round and knocked Liakhovich down. Briggs subsequently trapped him on the ropes and continued his assault, knocking Liakhovich out of the ring. Liakhovich landed on a ringside table, and the referee stopped the bout. If the referee had allowed the fight to continue after the second knockdown and Liakhovich had come back into the ring within 20 seconds, it would have resulted in a draw. The official time was 2:59. In his first title defense Shannon Briggs was to face Sultan Ibragimov on March 10, 2007;