How We’re Living: Shannon Briggs Has “Let’s Go Champ” Attitude

People who have had their teeth kicked in, and had to pick 'em up, and regroup…only to be kicked again, in the groin, figuratively, those are the people that are good to touch base with during a time such as this.

Coronavirus has changed most everything in America, with businesses and school grinding to a screeching halt. Ideally, you adapt, and figure out the best methods for you and your peeps to get through this all as well as can be.

Shannon Briggs, he's been through storms. He's had to pick up the teeth, shrug off the groin shot, and keep grinding.

Mr. “Let's Go Champ” wasn't so chipper, wasn't that pied piper of optimism after he went up against Vitali Klitschko in 2010. Briggs showed the heart of two lions in going the distance with Vitali, but he paid a hefty price physically. An elbow joint popped in the first round, he had a torn left bicep, and serious damage to his eyes…and mentally, the after effects whacked the Florida resident in brutal fashion.

He got suicidal after losing to Klitschko, which hurt that much more because, he said, he was paid $34,000 after being promised $750,000. (Briggs lawyered up and went after promoters/business partners Shelly Finkel, Greg Cohen and Barry Honig, that case never made it to a judge or jury's decision.) Briggs was up to 400 pounds, and looking at bridges, and thinking about jumping off of them.

So, yeah, something like this coronavirus situation might not present itself as the same sort of mountain as it appears to “regular folks,” people who didn't see their mom die from a drug OD while dad was doing a long prison stint, and then died in prison. Shannon and mom had some homeless stints, and yes, he knew pretty early on that his existence wasn't the norm.

“I knew something was wrong, at eight or nine,” he told me on Talkbox, “you look at your other friends, their moms were looking different, and she had track marks on her hands…it was hard growing up.”

So, he's clambered out of dark bunkers. He isn't unfamiliar with the emotions many of us are feeling now. “We're gonna hunker down, get through this thing, hopefully,” Briggs told me on a Thursday phoner.

I asked him, how are the peeps in Pembroke Pines, Florida and vicinity dealing with this?

“It's sunny Florida, so for the most part, people are calm and cool. But they are taking it serious, very serious. But IT IS sunny Florida! People are trying their best, doing what they have to do. Hopefully, things will clear up in days, I'm hoping for the best, China has opened up. I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible.

“I'm a positive person, a hundred percent, but a lot of people on their phones and the web, there's a lot of panic going on, you read things, negative stuff, and people live off that misinformation. A lot of people thrive off of fear, we all have negative thoughts, and I don't think we should feed that! I've gone through hard shit, been there, done that…But I never died before,  I never tried that! Let's go champ! I'm all about overcoming this. I've always been optimistic, even when I was down and out, because what do you get fron being negative. Why go negative, go down a darker hole? I try to be a dreamer, dream something, and propel myself to do it, get to a better situation.”

Briggs is a people person, he's at his best interacting, vibing with the masses. There's a bit less of that these days, with the social distancing being recommended. Is that hard for Shannon? The people person says that one bright light is that he's running an online tele-med outfit, My Alpha DNA, which mostly dispenses men's health products, for erectile dysfunction and such. As you can imagine, tele-medicine is heating up right now, with the need for people to keep separate, so My Alpha DNA is humming along, he said.

“People can't go out, they're quarantined,” Briggs said, “so you have a phone visit. We have low prices!”

And, we'll presume, there could well be an uptick in need for tadalafil, generic Cialis, because people have time to burn, but anxiety is pressing on them. Erections will be desired, but typical efficacy likely won't be in effect….

Briggs has other irons in fires..He's working on a docu-series, with Mike Tyson, and Riddick Bowe, about boxing and Brownsville, Brooklyn, called “Never Ran, Never Will.”

His auto-biography should be hitting the stands, virtual and otherwise, soon. And hey, at this moment, I am wearing a “Let's Go Champ” t-shirt, no BS. Click here to order yours.

Bottom lining it, Briggs finishes with this: “We will get through this. Let's go champ! We're all champs!”