Former lineal heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs has become a part of boxing culture and will go down as one of the better heavyweights during his era. However, this would not have been the case for the former champ if he didn’t win the heavyweight championship against boxing legend George Foreman back in 1997.

The match was set for 12 rounds at the  Trump Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Coming into the fight, Briggs was 29–1  with 24 of his wins coming via KO. Foreman, on the other hand, was in the latter stages of his career and seemed to be on the brink of retirement.

Despite this, the two put on a great contest with Briggs narrowly winning via majority decision.

This would turn out to be Foreman’s last fight in his storied career as Briggs now finally became a world champion.

However, the road to redemption wasn’t easy for Briggs as he revealed that his mother passed away a few weeks before his fight. In an interview with Boss Talk, he revealed that his mother’s death served as fuel for him to go out and win the title.

“My mom had died on my birthday and the fight was uh you know not too far after and it was something that, I think kept me up and kept me showing motivating me for the fight”  he said.

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Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson also suffered from early childhood trauma after both his parents passed away when he was just a teenager. However, Iron Mike would also go on to become the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.

Shannon Briggs details how he went from sleeping on rail tracks to becoming a world champion

Briggs then claimed that the opportunity he got was life-changing as just a few months back he was sleeping on rail tracks and was now challenging for the world title.

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“The opportunity he gave me was life-changing. I was at a down point in my life, I wound up getting a very close decision. Oh my God I won the title and it was life-changing. I could go down the rest of my life and here was a kid and sleeping on the train a few years before that. Me and my mom and now there we are. I was you know she had died but I won the title. She gave me a sense of worth self-worth” he added.

Despite the fight going to a close decision. Briggs was able to pull himself up remembering his late mother and come back from the shackles of defeat to become the heavyweight champion of the world. This certainly is a testament to his will and resilience.

What did you think about Briggs’ mother’s death fueling him to become a champion? Let us know in the comments.