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Shannon Briggs: Pest knows best?

staff — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 05:46:27 +0000

You have to admire Shannon Briggs.

Well, you don’t have to. You might think he’s a looney tune, at age 43 playing the jester and trying to lure heavyweight titan — and RING heavyweight champion – Wladimir Klitschko into a tussle and a payday. Not necessarily in order of import…

But c’mon.

The Brooklyner’s long game has to be applauded. For two-plus years, he’s been a mosquito at the fancy bash, showing up to needle Wlad while bellowing his catchphrase, “Let’s go champ!”

So I do wonder, will Briggs’ gambit ever pay off? I put this question to Team Klitschko exec Bernd Boente. Will we see Wlad against the combustible “Cannon”? And what’s his take on the taped hijinks? “It’s entertainment,” said Boente, who waits to see how Wlad handles a taller foe, Tyson Fury, shortly.

Ok, might these comedic bits result in a payoff? “I don’t see a business case to be made for (Wlad vs. Briggs),” Boente said.

But Briggs will be pleased to know, Bonte did NOT shut the door or a window to that tussle. Hey, this is boxing. Much stranger things have happened.

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Hosley knows it's now or never to prove himself with Giants

staff — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 15:50:02 +0000

Jayron Hosley knows what you think.

The Giants’ corner knows he’s viewed by many as a disappointment, that three years into his career, he still hasn’t developed into a starter. Hamstring woes wrecked his 2013, and last year, he was suspended four games for violating the league’s drug policy.

“I’ve made some mistakes,” he said. “I haven’t played to the best of my abilities. And a lot comes with that. But that’s all behind me. This is Year 4. There’s a reason why I’m still here . . . They didn’t have to bring me back last year.”

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Saturday’s preseason game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium could be one of his last opportunities to prove that. As a rookie in 2012, this is where his career got off to a promising start, when he intercepted Mark Sanchez and returned it for a TD in a preseason win.

But this year, other things are on his mind. First cuts are on Tuesday, and the Giants must trim down to 53 by next Saturday, after the preseason finale against the Patriots. While Hosley has a solid chance to stick with the team past Tuesday, he knows he’s firmly on the roster bubble.

He arrived in this training camp intent on reigniting his career, and impressed the club early on, even seeing first-team snaps during joint practices with the Bengals. But a concussion prevented him from playing extensively against the Jaguars last Saturday. And coach Tom Coughlin still needs to see more.

“Yeah, he was (playing well before the concussion),” Coughlin said. “We’d like to see him do some more things.”

Hosley wants to do more, too,if only to justify his return to the Giants this year. Over the last two years, he was never focused and ready, he said, distracted and frustrated by too many issues around him. He hasn’t intercepted a ball since his promising rookie year, was admittedly “out of position” when he was on the field in 2014.

He blames the hamstring injury and the suspension – and his own youth.

“I never had so much come at me in the midst of my career, back-to-back, injuries, injuries, stuff,” said Hosley, who turns 25 next month. “Just not being there mentally, kind of losing my confidence in myself.

That lack of confidence turned into overwhelming fear this past offseason. Hosley was entering the final year of his contract, but he’d played so poorly in 2014 that he wondered if the Giants might just cut him.

He trained in Florida, working to get into “the best shape of my life,” he said, took up yoga to keep his balky hamstring healthier, talked to a counselor regularly about his drug issues.

“Actually having a counselor to talk to and people who were actually in my corner and wanted to see me being successful . . . it helped me get my mind right,” he said. “I was training and doing my thing.”

But he was also “ready” for a phone call from the Giants that would send him on his way, he said, braced for it whenever his smartphone buzzed. It never came.

“There wasn’t that call that said you’re coming back,” he said. “But I’m thankful that I didn’t get that call that you’re NOT coming back.”

And now, he wants one more week without a call from the Giants, one more season-long chance to prove he belongs in this league.

“I’m fighting to prove a point,” he said. “I’m not concerned with where I end up. But I am the guy that they drafted.”

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Shane Mosley: “Everybody knows Mayweather-Berto is a joke”

staff — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 14:48:40 +0000

The verdicts have been rendered on social media and yes, the feedback hadn’t been kind to #MayweatherBerto. One quipster Tweeted to me that even if he got flown to Vegas and put up in a hotel and got a comped ticket he still might beg off and say he had to work.

A light sampling shows that some fighters aren’t enthused, either. What about you, Shane Mosley? You pumped for Mayweather versus Berto? “I think that fight is a joke,” said SSM after a training session for his Aug. 29 rematch with Ricardo Mayorga. “Everyone knows it’s a joke, but they are still going to buy it. Which is why he is able to do it.”

Dude is 43 and in some ways, has more pop than ever!

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