By Brad Cooney, February, 14, 2007
WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs was informed Tuesday by his personal physician, Dr. Islon Woolf, that he has pneumonia. “A CAT Scan revealed that Briggs has pneumonia in his lower left lobe (in the lung),” revealed Dr. Woolf to FightNews. In addition, Briggs suffers from chronic asthma which is a disease that affects your airways. The airways are tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. The last two weeks, Briggs has experienced fatigue and sweat while sleeping. Normally running nine miles a day, Briggs could barely run a couple of blocks. A pulmonary function test (PFT) - which is a breathing test or series of tests to determine maximum volume of air that the lungs can hold - was administered. Dr. Woolf stated that Briggs failed the test and declared him unable to compete until fully healed, which could take several weeks.

The WBO Champion was eager to reach out to his fans thru FightNews to explain his predicament: “I am not in the best shape right now and I am sorry for the lack of enthusiasm right now. It's very depressing because this was a great opportunity for me to defend my title in my home town. I have seen the best doctors in the world, and I have taken a series of tests that show that I have pneumonia.” Briggs makes it clear that this fight is not canceled, just delayed. “We are going to push the fight back, but I heard that he is going to fight someone else for the interim title, so we'll see what happens and go from there. Hopefully he doesn't do that. Hopefully he'll just wait and fight me. That would be great because I would hate to see him lose that fight, because then I wouldn't get a chance to smash him.”

The walking pneumonia – aggravated by his asthma - will have Briggs out of commission for approximately 3 to 4 weeks. “It's a wrap for now, it's definitely a wrap, but I'm looking at coming back. When the doctor tells me that I can start training again, I will start and go from there. I look great physically, but cosmetically, I just can't breath. My wealth is not worth my health. If I get hit in the brain and go into a coma, we don't need that, you know? I am not going to risk my life.” Brigg's makes it clear that he is anxious to get back into the gym and to defend his championship: “The doctor told me that maybe in 4 weeks or so I will be able to train again. They say once they get me on the right medication that I will be 2 times better than I ever was.” Briggs said to his fans, “I want to tell my fans that I am truly sorry for letting them down but I will be back!”