Former world heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs, back from the depths of despair, gets a shot at redemption

'I was down and out, I was depressed, I was really feeling bad about myself, I contemplated jumping off a bridge a few times,' says Briggs after defeat to Vitali Klitscko in 2010.

Shannon Briggs after beating Emilio Ezequiel at london's O2 Arena. Andrew Couldridge / Action Images

When veteran American Shannon Briggs fights David Haye in September, he will cap a remarkable recovery from a time in which he contemplated suicide.

It will have been almost 10 years to the night he last won a world title, and six since he last fought an opponent of such class.

More importantly to the heavyweight, however, it will represent his return from a time he thought his life and career was over.

He received such a sickening 12-round beating from then-WBC champion Vitali Klitschko in 2010 it was felt he should never fight again. The referee that night, Ian John-Lewis, is still criticised for not ending the brave Briggs’ misery.

• David Haye lines up 'a bit old, but he can fight a bit' Shannon Briggs after disposing of Arnold Gjergjaj

Yet after a three-and-a-half-year layoff in which he considered “jumping off a bridge” and depression led to him weighing 400lbs, he has fought nine times since April 2014 and against Haye will receive the lucrative chance the world’s other leading heavyweights have denied him.

“I’m 44 years old, a lot of people wrote me off,” said Briggs, whose lengthy and very public pursuit of fights with Wladimir Klitschko and WBC champion Deontay Wilder were snubbed until he was entertained by Haye.

“I called everybody in the business, I called (influential boxing adviser) Al Haymon, they told me to ‘Hold on’: I’m still on hold.

“They turned me down, they told me ‘No’, they didn’t believe in me. Here I am today, thousands of fans are saying ‘Let’s go, champ’: that mantra started with me, after my fight with Vitali Klitschko.

“I suffered a broken arm in the first round, tore tendons and ligaments, but fought him for 10 rounds with one arm, and I didn’t even get a dime for it.

“I was down and out, I was depressed, I was really feeling bad about myself, I contemplated jumping off a bridge a few times, and then I had my daughter - she’s four years old now - and it was looking into her eyes, her beautiful face, it told me I had to live, I had to come back and make something of myself and my baby girl. It’s an unbelievable feeling.

“I was really going through a lot of things, my mum died on my birthday, my dad died in prison, I had a rough life growing up, I wasn’t able to get an education. I was homeless since I was 13 years old.

“I truly, truly (had) depression, to the deep core. I was 400lbs in weight: it was to a point where I was so fat I couldn’t even tie my shoes. That was about four or five years ago, after the Klitschko fight.”

There is little question Haye, who on Saturday stopped Arnold Gjergjaj in two rounds in the second fight of a comeback that began in January after a three-and-a-half year absence of his own, considers Briggs a straightforward opponent who appeals to the casual fight fan and provides minimal threat to his hopes of challenging Anthony Joshua.

Lennox Lewis had spoken in the week of his belief his bigger frame - Haye’s 16st is around a stone heavier than he was at his peak - undermines the speed that was such an asset. As was felt when defeating Mark de Mori in January, Briggs believes that speed was absent and that he saw a fighter in decline.

“I didn’t see any speed, I just see a guy - he’s not like the old David Haye - which I was never impressed with,” said the American, from Brooklyn, New York.

“I believe [Haye was a better fighter before his comeback). He’s had two fights; I had eight (nine after beating Argentina’s Emilio Ezequiel Zarate on the Haye-Gjergjaj undercard]. I believe it takes time to shake off the rust.”

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