Liakhovich, born in Vitebsk, Belarus, and now fighting out of Scottsdale, Arizona, will make the first defense of his WBO crown when he faces Brooklyn's Shannon Briggs Saturday night on Showtime.

Liakhovich won the WBO belt with an exciting decision over heavily favored Lamon Brewster last April 1. The give-and-take 12-round slugfest is a serious candidate for the 2006 Fight of the Year.

A winner of seven in a row, Liakhovich is 23-1 with 14 KO's. The hard-punching Briggs, 47-4-1, with 41 KOs, has won 11 straight inside the distance and is the WBO No. 3 Contender.

“My day is coming,” says a confident Briggs. “I am going to give my all

“I respect Liakhovich. He is the man. I regard him as the true champion because he beat Lamon Brewster, who beat Wladimir Klitschko. I am in a tough fight but I am going in there to knock Liakhovich out.”

Both Liakhovich and his trainer, Kenny Weldon, say they fully expect Briggs to be at 110%.

“He’ll [Brigg’s trainer, Chuck McGregor] will have Shannon ready. I heard he is not doing his road work. He has a bad knee. But he is sparring a lot of rounds.”

Weldon emphasizes that Briggs is a dangerous foe who will come at his boxer, but also one that many expect to run out of gas as the fight progresses

“Everyone expects Shannon to come at us and run out of gas in four or five rounds,” says Weldon. “He is a one-dimensional guy. He fights in spurts. It is a matter of how many rounds he will be dangerous. Will it be four rounds? Eight rounds?”

Liakhovich is one of four Soviet-born world heavyweight champions.

“Right now, there are no U.S. champions in the heavyweight division,” says Liakhovich. “But, all of us who own world titles deserve them. All of us work hard and we are smart.”

When asked whether he would fight the 7’0” tall WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, Liakhovich replied that the determination of such a match-up is in the hands of Promoter Don King.

Weldon speculated on the reasons he believes a Liakhovich-Valuev bout is unlikely: “Don King likes having two champions, and he does not want his big guy to lose because we know Sergei would beat Valuev.”

“Nobody wants to fight me, and that is a problem,” Liakhovich says.

Before signing to defend against Briggs, Liakhovich called out the world heavyweight champions.

“The guy I want is Wladimir Klitschko,” he says. “But he doesn’t want tough fights. He won’t fight me.’’

In his quest to unify the heavyweight titles, Liakhovich must first get past Briggs a formidable foe.