After yet another New York press conference the only thing left for Shannon Briggs and Sultan Ibragimov to do now is to actually fight one another.

For the third time this year WBO title-holder Briggs and Ibragimov met with the assembled media on Wednesday in New York City to hype their pending showdown this Saturday at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The fight was originally scheduled to take place on March 10th at the Theater in Madison Square Garden. However, Briggs pulled out of the date due to illness while Ibragimov fought a tune-up; blowing out Javier Mora in less than a round. The fight was then re-scheduled for June 2nd although it appeared to be heading to Russia. Finally the New Jersey venue was secured. After months of negotiation, re-negotiations and hype both men will meet on PPV on Saturday night (suggested retail price: $29.95). It will mark Briggs' first defense since stopping Sergei Liakhovich in the final second of the final round last November.

"It is what it is. And I think that Saturday night you're going to see a great fight," Scott Hirsch, Briggs manager explained when he reached the podium. "I don't think it's going to be a long night. I think Shannon will catch him early and go home early. I think you're going to see some excitement for as long as it lasts."

"This fight, on paper, looks like a fireworks fight," said Leon Margules, of Seminole Warriors Promotions, Ibragimov's promoter. "You don't want to miss it."

"I'm looking forward to defending my title," Briggs, 48-4-1, 42 KO's said. "It's a great opportunity to showcase my skills. I can punch and he'll find that out. I'm a puncher, he's a decent puncher and we're going to go at it from the first round."

Compared to the typically verbose Briggs, Ibragimov (20-0-1, 17 KO's) was sullen and didn't say much. "I never talk bad about my opponents," he said. "I talk in the ring." Asked about the nearly 2-1 odds in his favor Ibragimov said that "I just think about this fight. I don't think about what's next. I don't think about him, I think about me. I think about myself."

Ironically, Briggs' old neighbor from Brownsville, Brooklyn will be making an appearance in support of Ibragimov. Former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson has applied for a seconds license to work Ibragimov's corner Saturday night. While he has drug charges pending against him, Tyson has received permission from a judge to leave Arizona temporarily to attend the fight. A decision to licence Tyson to work the corner had not been met as of press time. And if that wasn't bad enough for Briggs, his former trainer, Jeff Mayweather, will also be working the Ibragimov corner.