I'm in a bad place. I just hit for $19
million, but I'm going down fast and
hard.
Tyson Fury went through something
similar, right?
I had everything I f wanted to talk
about some of these some of the greatest
challenges outside of the ring.
Showed me all the drugs, all the
cocaine. It was like scarfing. It's like
a movie. I was like, champ, you bugging.
What are you doing?
You don't ever put no hands on the
Brownville yet.
I don't care where you from, Yeti. Get
them.
There's a lot of Muslims in the world.
All over the world is Muslims. It didn't
work for me. Alcohol didn't work for me.
10 years clean this month.
[Music]
That's right. Praise to be to Allah.
That's right. This is the
danger
for the
People,
are you ready for the for the
[Music]
time?
Alhamdulillah. Assalam alaikum.
Greetings of peace. Now, my next guest
is a former heavyweight champion, world
champion, and has fought some of the
best in the world like George Foreman,
Klitschko,
the heavyweight championship in the
world.
Lennox Lewis, you name it, he's probably
fought him. But what we really want to
talk to him about are some of the
biggest and greatest battles outside of
the ring that he has gone up against and
how he overcame them like going into a
deep depression, becoming obese, even at
one point trying to kill himself with
food and money, growing up an orphan,
and much much more. So we can go ahead
and get to know our next guest, Champ
Shannon Briggs.
What's up, brother? Let's go, Champ.
How are you doing? How are you doing?
I'm good, champ. How about yourself?
Good, good, good. It's nice to have you
here on the Dean show with us.
Thank you for having me, Champ. I really
appreciate that.
So, did we hit that right? Uh, world
champion. You've fought some of the
greatest out there, huh?
Well, you got that wrong since it's
two-time heavyweight champion in the
world.
Yeah. Okay. So, m multi-heavyweight
champ of the world, huh,
brother? Yes, champ.
Yeah. So, te tell us some of the some of
the greats that you fought. I mentioned
Lennox Lewis, you got George Foreman,
uh, Klitschko.
Yes. Yes, I fought those those those are
some of the champions I fought as well
as uh France both Sergey Lakovic
uh just to name a few. Sultan Bragg off
is one of my t title challenges uh
Vitali. Yeah, I had a couple fights here
and there.
And you and you're still ticking strong,
huh?
Yeah, I'm still feeling good, you know.
I'm in great shape. I just turned 50
December 4th. Uh, I have an upcoming
match uh with uh Rampage Jackson.
Look at him, y'all. He pretty big, too.
Don't get worried.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute. Look at his arms.
Let's go, champ.
Former MMA champion. And uh I'm looking
forward to that. We're going to fight
three fights possibly. Uh one in the
Triad Ring, which is a which is a new
combat. Um it's former combat that was
created through Triller. And uh then
we're going to fight and buy in a boxing
ring and I'm going to knock him out
again. And then we're going to fight MMA
MMA match in which um he thinks he's
going to choke me, but that's not going
to happen.
Okay. For for the MMA, uh and hopefully,
God willing, in like we say, inshallah,
maybe we could be of benefit. That's
that's my specialty. That's what I teach
uh uh Gracie Brazilian jiu-jitsu. So
maybe we can get you over at our academy
and we can uh give you some good
techniques to help defend the choke and
maybe apply some good submission on him.
turn the tables.
Yeah, I'm I'm gonna definitely need your
help because uh that's that's the area
that I'm not too good at, but I'm sure
with your help, you'll help me get them
get it get get them up off me.
We say inshallah, God willing.
Beautiful. Yes. So, tell me now what we
wanted to talk about some of these some
of the greatest challenges outside of
the ring. I mean, you've gone through a
lot, you know, in your struggles. You
went through one time a really deep
depression, you know, obesity. That's
something that's an epidemic today in in
in not just America, all over the world,
but especially here. 70 people 70% of
Americans either o overweight or obese.
You know, uh depression is at an
all-time high, skyrocketing, people
just, you know, throwing down the uh
prescription drugs and you know,
thinking that's going to help. But you
kind of overcame these things even at
one point really trying to kill you and
your life. Uh can you talk to us uh a
little bit how you went down that road
and how you got out?
Well, it was, you know, it was a multi,
like I always say, it's not just one
thing. It was a multitude of things, you
know, growing up, uh, you know,
tough childhood like most kids. And
then, uh, you know, coming into success
of somewhat and always really struggling
to to get ahead and led to a lot of
different things, bad decision making at
some point. And then uh unfortunately I
had my box for food and uh you know
prescription drugs and it led to more
depression. Unfortunately for me my
daughter was born and she'll be 10
January 15th and
congratulations. Yeah.
Thank you. When she was born I I took a
huge step towards uh recovery which was
u actually this this this next week I
believe it is or this week will be 10
years clean. No alcohol. I haven't had a
that would be 10 years. My it was a week
or two before my daughter was born. Um
I told myself that I was done drinking
alcohol and that's when I gave up
alcohol and I I I went on this journey
which was to to health and health and
and wealth to be honest with you because
I've always been on my own since I was
eight years old. I've been doing some
form of employment, working, trying to
survive um to take care, me and my mom,
single parent in Brownsville, Brooklyn,
New York. So, for me, um I've always
been working and struggling to to earn.
So, uh I took a a spiritual journey to
wealth and health, which is training
hard, eating right, and which is my is
my health. And then also using that same
um drive that I've always had to build
some wealth and I I created and I
trademark the uh the saying west champ
and that was to to it was my my my um my
self motivation my trigger word for when
I was feeling depressed and you know I
wanted to quit or I wanted to give up I
tell myself let's go champ let's go
champ and it became my mantra um and I
went around the world and And you know I
think so in some ways it's synonymous
when you hear let's go champ some people
think of Shannon Briggs you know. Mhm.
So did then Tyson Fury went through
something similar, right?
I had everything. I had money, fame,
glory, good looks. I had it all.
Everything that a man would ever want,
you can have everything in the world and
and feel like on a day.
Uh he also hit a deep depression. And
I'm thinking like how is that when
people, you know, the whole world opens
up to you, you got all this money, fame,
how do you end up going down that route?
Well, that's what you know that
contributes to it as well because it
already got a hole in you and then you
know you get it just be a hole with
money coming through or you know you
kind of pick up things sometime to to
distract you to coach you to make you
feel like okay to numb you in some ways
you're doing things to chase uh a
feeling you know all goes down in
chemicals in your brain dopamine
serotonin and different things and
sometimes you know we start chasing this
dopamine high or serotonin high and it's
hard to battle whether it's alcohol,
drugs, gambling, sex, whatever it is.
These things are chemical in the brain,
you know, that that that reaction. So, I
I myself
even food like I was saying uh I myself
had to to fulfill it with exercise. Now,
you think that I mean as a professional
boxer that I've been doing this all my
life basically since I was 16 years old
that uh I would have known that but I
didn't know how important exercise was
to me and my life until I stopped
exercising and I ballooned up in weight
to you know 400 lb and I realized that
uh exercise is a crucial part of my life
not just from a physical standpoint but
from a mental standpoint that even now
when I don't exercise I don't feel great
we all know uh exercise is releases uh
different chemicals. They sell the uh
the run is high. These these things are
um these things are real and these
things are like any addict or anyone
chasing anything a high or feel good.
Um, you know, I I it took me to to hit,
you know, a real low place in my life to
realize that um I needed to fulfill my
so-cal like desires whether it was to go
out and spend money, you know, go buy a
new car, buy this, buy a buy by buy
material stuff, all these things were
clouding me. And then I started
realizing you got to replace that,
replace that with something positive.
You know what? That's why I I dove head
first into eating right into health like
okay what what's the best food I I dove
into anti-aging because I wanted to know
how I could lose the weight feel good
you know look good feel good that was
that's a key part of it you know look
good feel good so I was I was looking
messy I started changing myself how I
look my appearance and I started feeling
good and I realized that that in itself
kept me occupied whether than going out
drinking spending money anything sex
anything It became more fulfilling and
it cost less
and it Yeah. People can't you have you
have uh at one point you said using you
using money to kill yourself like
Yeah. Yeah. Like everybody but you know
you buying money for heroin or for crack
anything using the same money using it.
But I was just using it in ways like
just so to numb myself like to feel
good. So let me go do this. Let me buy
this. Let me go this. Let me go get a
girl. Let me do and all those things
just have you chasing your tail. Listen,
it didn't work for me. Alcohol didn't
work for me. 10 years clean this month.
Can you believe it? You know what I'm
saying? I 10 years alcohol free. I had
started drinking alcohol as a homeless
teenager at the age of 13, 14 years old.
Um on and off, you know, drinking with
the boys, drinking beer here, this and
that. But um after, you know, 10 years
clean alcohol, I lost the taste. I lost
the desire. And I didn't like what it
did to me. And I look back and say a lot
of my decision making was based off
alcohol especially when it came to
spending money because you know it was
part of that life being being out
spending money drinking and then I go
shopping and it's just a routine that
was it was a brutal routine but I'm
happy I overcame it. I'm I'm happy that
I'm able to tell people that hey listen
you know um I'm actually helping a
friend right now. I'm not gonna say his
name, but I got a call from a friend of
mine who said who said, "Chair, uh, I'm
in a bad place. I just hit for $19
million and I um, but I'm going down
fast and hard because I'm doing drugs
and I'm partying every day for the last
three months since the guil hit because
he disappeared and I hadn't heard from
him." I was like, "What happened?" You
know what I mean? What happened to my
boy? Not even thinking nothing happened.
Just kind of curious because I kept
calling. I didn't get him on the phone.
When I finally got him on the phone, he
said, "Champ, yesterday," he said,
"Champ, you haven't heard from me
because the deal went through." Now, I
wasn't part of the deal. I'm just, you
know, I'm just
He got n$19 million.
$19 million.
199 million. And then now he's calling
you saying, "I'm going down fast."
I called him.
Yo, you called him
and I just had to ask him a question, a
business question. And I was lucky to
get him on the phone because I called
him quite a few times over the last
three months and he never answered.
So I was like, "Man, what's up?" You
know, did I do something to him? He
answered yesterday. He was like, "Champ,
you haven't heard from me because I hate
for$1 19 million. And look, he showed me
his house. He showed me I was like,
"Wow, congratulations." He was like,
"Yeah, but look." He showed me all the
drugs, all the cocaine. It was like
scarfing. It's like a movie. I was like,
"Champ, you bugging. What are you
doing?" He said, "I know. I never had
money. I never lived life. And now I've
been doing it for two months and I got
the money, but I see I'm going to kill
myself the way I'm headed."
I said, I said, "Listen to me.
You need a champ camp.
You need a champ camp."
You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You need
a champ camp. You need to awaken and
somebody to tell you you're champ. You
bugging out. Chill out. Champ, chill.
And he was like, "You're right." He was
like, "Ch, can you come? can you come
Malibu and and and hang out with me and
get me clean? I was like, I don't know,
Chad. But I say that to say this,
his endorphins is high right now. He's
grunting crazy, right? And the money is
making him it's making him go crazy. You
know what I mean? He can crash. He's 30
years old. He can crash and do a lot of
damage. So
I say that to say I'm happy that
I was able to talk to him and through my
experiences people can learn and say yo
champ was right. A lot of people don't
have a lot of people don't have a big
brother, a father, a uncle. They don't
have anybody in their life to say, "Hey
man, you're doing wrong." And um I can
I'm lucky to say that I survived my my
my hiccup hiccups and I can tell people,
hey man, you know, don't do it, Chad.
Yeah, that's why we're trying to get
some gems, trying to see from your
experiences. So, uh God, people can
benefit uh from some of the things that
you've gotten over. Uh did you actually
get a chance? Did you know you do you
know personally Tyson Fury? Did you guys
ever uh meet in the ring before?
No, we never fought
after I had came out of my depression
and I was I had lost weight. I uh he he
I had seen and ran into him and I was
telling him, "Hey, man, you can." He was
in a bad place at the time.
Yeah.
And I was like, "Hey man, you can do it,
man. If I did it, you can do it." He was
like, "Nah, nah." I said, "No, man. I'm
telling you, you can do it." And he did
it. And I was in a dark room on me own.
And I was praying to God to help me.
And not only did he do, he was the
biggest house. He did it. He did it big.
He won the title. He put on some of the
best fights in history now. You know,
was Wilder. And um you know, I'm happy.
I'm happy that he was able to he told me
he looked at me and was like, "Yo, you
inspired me." So I'm happy for him, man.
I'm happy that I was able to inspire him
and I'm still hoping to inspire as many
people as I can.
How much uh did uh Muhammad Ali did he
play any role in um in your life or
every role? He was our Michael Jordan,
you know,
he's our Michael Jordan.
You never did you ever get a chance to
meet Did you ever get a chance to meet
uh Muhammad Ali?
Yeah, I met I met Muhammad Ali when I
was um 23 years old, I believe, for the
first time. Maybe I was younger than
that. No, I'm sorry. I was 20 when I met
Ali for the first time. And um yeah, it
was in it was in yeah 1992 I believe
and uh
yeah he was an amazing kind of you know
beacon of light for all all of us. You
know what I mean?
Tell me uh at one point you also met
Mike Tyson. Tell us about that
experience. The first time you met him
in a park.
No I didn't meet him then but I seen
him.
You saw him? Yeah. When you saw him?
Yes.
Yeah. He was a, you know, a specimen of
a man then as a as a young man. Mike
Tyson was a special specimen of a man
and he still is. He's a one of the
greatest heavyweight fighters in the
history of the planet of this world of
this world and that we know in boxing
and you know it's a pleasure to be you
know it's an honor to be from the same
neighborhood that he's from. You know
what I mean?
Yeah. I want to go ahead and uh get your
reaction to uh uh this video here. I
want to I want to see if you if you know
some of these individuals in the video
that I'm going to play with for you. Are
you ready?
Can you recognize anybody in these
videos?
Yeah, I don't see too good, but I see I
think that's Badu Jack.
That's a good friend. He's a good friend
of yours, right?
Yes. Is that Badu?
That's Badu. Yes, Badu Jack.
What's my brother? Yeah.
Yeah. How about who's next to him?
Is that Mike?
That's Mike.
Wow. Let's go Jack.
Mike Tyson. And then you know uh who's
leading leading them? Have you ever seen
anything like this?
Have I seen any like what?
Like like Yeah.
Men praying.
Yeah. I mean this type of this type of
praying. Have you ever seen you know
what they're doing?
Brooklyn, New York, man. I'm born I'm 50
years old. I'm from Brooklyn, New York.
I'm older than you, man.
Okay. So that's familiar to you?
Yeah, man. Of course.
So Oh, okay. So you you met some Muslims
before?
Come on, man. I'm from Brooklyn, New
York. I was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Brownville. Yeah.
Yeah. I was a little I was a little
nervous. You'd be nervous on coming on
an Islamic TV show.
I ain't scared, man. What?
Why should I be scared?
Yeah. With all the with all the negative
propaganda that's out there, a lot of
times people, you know, they get a
little bit nervous. But uh that's why we
do the program to try to break some of
the ice and educate uh humanity on the
most misunderstood way of life out there
that actually Muhammad Ali lived uh
Malcolm X and then we got uh Mike Tyson
here praying with Badu Jack. So you know
Badu Jack, huh? And uh you got a you got
uh Amir Abdullah,
you know him also his manager. Yes,
brother.
Yeah. So when you mentioned Brooklyn,
why? There's a lot lot of Muslims there
in uh Brooklyn.
New York period. There's a lot of
Muslims in New York. There's a lot of
Muslims in the world. All over the world
there's Muslims.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, the next thing before we
conclude, I wanted that's what my next
thing I wanted to see get your Have you
ever heard this? I'm going to I'm going
to let you hear it and just get your
reaction to it and uh your feedback
here. What does that sound like to you?
Have you ever heard that being in in New
York? Has that ever
Have you ever heard Never
Never.
If you had to guess, I mean, you you've
listened to a lot of music, probably
hip-hop, who 50 Cents, 55 Cents, all
this stuff out. What does that What did
that sound like to you?
What do you mean?
Like, you know, you know, you can
classify if it's jazz, you classify
jazz. If it's rock, you'll classify
rock. Hip-hop, you know, the beast of
hip-hop. What What category does this
fit into when you listening to it?
Definitely not rock. It's not rap. It's
a foreign language to me
and it's a foreign music. It doesn't
sound It doesn't sound It sounds like,
you know, someone singing. I don't
understand the language, but
yeah,
you know, it sounds beautiful for what
it's worth. I mean, the voice I'm sure I
don't know what they're singing about.
It sounds beautiful. Mashallah. Yeah.
Yeah. This is uh this is the Quran.
This was the Quran. Yeah.
Okay. That's cool.
Beautiful. Beautiful.
So, uh so what message can you give
before we conclude? Um tell us um for
the people out there who are suffering
you know this was a beautiful thing when
you put in your mind when you're at the
depths you know of the lowest places in
your life and I like this mantra that
you know you're putting in your head you
know uh let's go champ you know you can
do it just like when this your friend
called you he's got the money and now
he's going down that's that's crazy it's
like hey I haven't reached you because
you know I hit it he pretty much hit it
big but now you would think he's got all
the money it's going to bring happiness
but it's not filling that void you know
what I mean?
Not at all. And that's why he asked me
to come help on me said, "Yo, Champ, I
need your help. I need a champ camp."
So, um, that I would say that to say I'm
lucky to be that type of person that
someone will look at me and say, "Yo, I
just got $19 million and I would love
for you to come help me get my life
together." That's amazing. That means
that they respect or see something. And
like he said,
I see what you overcame with a lot more
money. So, he was like, you know, I can
use your help. But um
you know I think you know life's a
journey champ. We all we all on a
journey. We all trying to make it. We
all trying to do the right thing
hopefully. And uh you know I'm I want to
appreciate you for having me on your
show.
Thank Thank you very much. God willing.
We can uh So you're in Miami, huh?
Yes, brother. Yes, champ.
All right. So hopefully if we ever visit
down there, we can we can uh you know
and if you're ever in Chicago
Oh, you're in Chicago? Oh, man. They got
I got some delicious food in Chicago.
That's my place, man.
Yeah, we can have you come by our our
our our gym, our academy here.
I would love to, man. I might have to
come train. I'm I'm going to have to
come train with y'all so y'all can show
me how to beat Rampage.
So, wait, tell me. So, that's You said
it's a it's a a threepart. You're doing
one thing with Rampage for B boxing and
then the other one is uh what were the
other two?
Triad. Triad is a new form of combat.
It's like you fight with UFC gloves like
I mean well MMA gloves uh but you kind
of it's like dirty boxing. You know what
I'm saying? It's like but fighting a
triangle ring a triangle you know as is
the the the matter is a triangle.
So wait you're so but the boxing you're
going to do that's how many how many
ounce glove? That's the uh eight 8 o
right?
Boxing is going to be I think 10 oz or
something like that. But these are going
to be I think four. No these are eight
oz gloves. I thought
Yeah. Yeah. So, you're going to do one
with the regular boxing, then the other
one with these uh with these other type
of MMA gloves.
The MMA gloves first triad in there,
which will be uh probably in May and
then uh
Wow. So, that's is that anything on the
ground or is that just strictly, you
know,
that's strictly stand up?
Stand up. He gonna be on the ground when
I hit him.
[Laughter]
Oh, and then two of those. And then the
third one is is uh on everything MMA. Is
that is that in the UFC?
Well, it's in the cave. Not in the cave,
but it's in the I know. Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
That's when I'mma choke him. That's when
I'mma put That's when I'mma get him on
the ground and I'mma choke him. So, he
can't breathe until he beg me to quit.
God bless you.
Let's go, champ.
God bless you, champ. All right. Thank
you very much. It was nice. It was nice
having you on the program. God bless
you.
You see that fist? You see that fist?
Look at that, champ. Oh,
all it take is one hit. One, champ. One.
Are you still doing the molasses?
Oh, how you know about the molasses?
Let's go, champ. I know. Let's go.
You're still doing the molasses.
What What do you do real quick? Uh, just
I forgot to ask you like in the morning
like what do you like to eat? What
What's your new regimen for? Because I'm
li and onions.
Liver liver and onions.
Oh, you're doing the liver. That's the
most that liver is the most nutri
nutritiously dense food out there that
many people don't know about that.
That's right. I'm over there eating. I'm
eating like an animal. I'm eating beef,
chicken, fish. I'm getting this tip top
shape. I'm an animal. You gonna see me
soon, champ. When Rampage see me, he
going he going to defecate on himself.
And no alcohol. Alhamdulillah.
No alcohol in 10 years. That's right.
No alcohol. Alhamdulillah.
That's right. Praise be to Allah. That's
right.
Alhamdulillah.
Mashallah. This is beautiful.
Alhamdulillah. All right. Beautiful. All
right. Very nice, man. May God bless you
and and um uh we hope to uh maybe meet
you in person sometime soon.
That's right. That's right. Praise God.
Praise God. Let's go, champ. I hope to
see you soon.
Let's go, champ. All right, brother.
Byebye. Peace.
All right. Peace.
And that was the uh former world
heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs here
on the Dean Show. A couple lessons that
we got to learn. you know, we wanted to
talk about
what helped him get out, you know, of
this depression. He was into a lot of
the things like, you know, that people
get into once you got all that money.
So, one lesson is you can have all the
money. You know, the story he uh shared
with us, his friend got the 19 million
and he's heading downhill. And you would
think, okay, because many people chase
money. So, now you got money. What are
you going to do with that money? So like
uh Shannon was sharing with us, he was
just eating himself to death. He was
going ahead and doing the drugs and
alcohol and all the different things
that person would think that would bring
them some sort of happiness but it's
just short term. It's shortlived. It's
just fulfilling your desires but the
void is still there. So inshallah we can
go ahead and um benefit from that for
people who are trying to you know chase
all the material things and finding and
dining and you know just running through
life heedless on the purpose of life to
really think you know yes money can be a
means for you to go ahead and do some
good in the world but it can also lead
to your destruction and we need to
really think what's the purpose of life
why am I here everything around us has a
purpose the keys in my p pocket have a
purpose you know this uh the camera
that's filming is has a purpose. You
know, everything that we can see in
front of us. But what about the human
being? What's our purpose? And what's
the purpose of life? You know, pretty
soon he'll be in the ring and he will be
facing Rampage Jackson action. Now,
imagine that these two get into this
octagon, Troy, whatever this thing is
that they're going to be doing. And
there was no ultimate goal at the end.
There was no
objective. That would make no sense. Now
go ahead and equate that to life. What
is the purpose of our lives? And many of
us are heading towards our departure
date. Many have already departed from
this life. You know, where do we go when
we leave? So those are the kind of
crucial questions that we should be
asking. What's the purpose of life? Why
are we here? And who best to ask than
the one who created us, the creator of
the heavens and earth. So we leave you
with that. And if you'd like a free copy
of what you heard Shannon listening to
which is the verbat word of God Almighty
Allah the Quran go ahead and visit
thedeshow.com
you can get your free copy of the Quran
and if you have any questions call us
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Shannon for being with us and we'll see
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