April 28, 2000

On the evening of Thursday, April 27 from the Hammerstein Ballroom located one block down from the epical setting of Mike Grant's challenge of Lennox Lewis' World Heavyweight Championship, Madison Square Garden this Saturday in New York City, hometown favorite Shannon Briggs (32-3-1, 26KOs) lost face when he dropped an 8-round, majority decision against journeyman, Sedrick "Big Buck" Fields (10-9, 8KOs).

Cedric Kushner Promotions promoted the bout, a part of Cedric Kushner's monthly "Heavyweight Explosion" shows from New York City.

The hundreds of fans in attendance were in shock to see Briggs, a former world heavyweight championship contender, a top-10 opponent, a guy with great hand coordination, size standing at a tall 6' 2," 242 pounds, be outclassed by a guy who only has 9 wins in 18 pro-bouts; pushing a 44% knockout percentage.

Fields, nonetheless, is no ordinary fighter.

As an amateur, Fields, a 27-year-old native of Augusta, Georgia, won several Atlanta Golden Glove titles and carried a 28-7 record. Fields has sparred all over the world. Namely with the Klitschko Bros. (Vitali & Wladimir) in Hamburg, Germany.

As a pro, Fields most impressive win came against former heavyweight prospect, Richard Jackson (22-2). Fields also fought Oleg Maskaev (TKO by 7), famous for his KO-win against Hasim Rahman last November and lasting eleven rounds with IBF No. 1 contender, David Tua several years ago. Fields also went the distance with former 1996 Olympian, Nate Jones (L 8).

"I did not do enough to him," said an excited Fields afterward. "[We] were going to shave through his dreadlocks, but he escaped. I'm on top of the world. This is no one time deal."

In the first two rounds, Briggs looked exceptionally well fighting behind left-jabs and digging deep in to Fields' sternum. Afterwards, an unmotivated and unfocused Briggs lightened-up dramatically on his shots, as he became the recipient of too many hooks and overhand shots that swelled-up his face and cut his bottom lip.

"Determination," according to Fields was the primary motivation behind his preparation for Briggs. "They told me about his fight two days ago."

At the end of eight rounds of action, the three judges at ringside scored the bout 76-76 (even), 76-75 (twice) for Fields.

"I have two daughters, one is three the other is two. I have a fiancé.' They were in there with me tonight. I live right. I don't smoke, don't drink," Fields concluded.

As for Briggs, 28, Brooklyn, New York, this loss really puts him in the hot seat. After having gone the distance with George Foreman (W 12), Frans Botha (D 12) and stopped in March 1998 against Lewis where he nearly KO'd the WBC champ in the first 10 seconds of the bout, the loss to Fields is a slap in the face to Briggs' management team, friends, fans, and most importantly his family.

In fact, the loss to Fields was worse than his third round TKO defeat to Darroll Wilson in March 1996. At least Wilson was undefeated.

This is a travesty!