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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Ben Davies

Shannon Briggs returns to sparring ahead of comeback fight against ex-UFC star

Shannon Briggs has made a return to sparring ahead of a potential comeback fight against Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson later this year.

The former heavyweight star has been locked in talks to face former MMA star Jackson after the pair clashed during a weigh-in for the Triad Combat event last year.

He is looking to organise an exhibition in a similar way to the mega-money clash between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr which was staged by Triller.

The 50-year-old looked significantly slower in his work compared to the hand speed he held during his prime and was seen leaning on his partner a great deal during the workout.

However Briggs will be hoping to impress fans ahead of a potential clash with Jackson who had a successful career both in UFC and Bellator.

He had an illustrious heavyweight career sharing the ring with the likes of George Foreman and Lennox Lewis.

Jackson last competed at the end of 2019 losing a Bellator clash with Fedor Emelianenko and hung up his MMA gloves shortly after.

However he is now looking to be successful in any potential boxing exploit against Briggs and has vowed to make him pay for "trolling" during their weigh-in exchange.

"That guy's a f****** a**hole," Jackson told TMZ. "I want to box and I think that his old a** would be a perfect match to be my first boxing match."

"I'ma f*** him up. I'm sick of that guy. All he does is troll me. Imma f*** him up. "He think I'm playing with him. He think it's all fun and games. That man is 50 years old. He too old to be acting like that.

"I told him I wanted to have a boxing match and Shannon agreed to get in there with me, we putting MMA fans vs. boxing fans.

Would you like to see a fight between Shannon Briggs and Rampage Jackson? Let us know in the comments section below

"I'm coming to get that respect, you boxers, you all don't respect us. Better put some respect on my name. It's going down. We trying to make it in early this year. Maybe March, April, after that, something like that."

The pair looked likely to clash immediately after their shoving showdown at the Triad Combat weigh-in where they both represented their sports in training.

Both will also be team captains in the second instalment of the Triad Combat event which will be headlined by Kubrat Pulev facing Junior Dos Santos.

Briggs and Jackson had previously admitted they had agreed on a date to fight on the Triad Combat event but the bout did not take place.

The former boxing star had decided he wanted to face Jackson after he was unable to lure fellow legendary heavyweight Tyson in to the second exhibition of his career.

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