Mairis Briedis

Mairis Briedis (born January 13, 1985) is a Latvian professional boxer competing in the cruiserweight division. He is the first Latvian to win a boxing world title, having held the WBC cruiserweight title from April 2017 to January 2018, and WBO cruiserweight title in 2019. He was awarded the Order of the Three Stars in 2017. As a professional, he has fought world champions Oleksander Usyk, Marco Huck, Krzysztof Głowacki and Manuel Charr. As of November 2019, he is ranked as the world’s best active cruiserweight by BoxRec, The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.

Early career

At the age of 24, Mairis Briedis, who previously served as a Latvian State Police officer in Rīga, turned professional in 2009. He racked up multiple wins in his home country and abroad, including a second round TKO of former heavyweight title challenger Danny Williams. He captured the IBA cruiserweight title along the way.

Briedis' first fight of note came in 2015, when he moved up in weight and traveled to Russia to face former heavyweight title challenger Manuel Charr. Briedis knocked out his much bigger opponent with a single punch in the fifth round.

In 2016, Briedis knocked out hard-hitting Nigerian Olanrewaju Durodola in a slug fest, to capture the WBC Silver cruiserweight championship. This made him the mandatory challenger for the winner of Tony Bellew and Ilunga Makabu. Briedis was ringside for the fight and congratulated the victorious Bellew in his dressing room afterwards.

Briedis then fought in the UK for the first time in a stay busy fight against Simon Vallily on the undercard of Bellew's first title defence against BJ Flores. Bellew vacated his title in early 2017, meaning the vacant title would be on the line in Briedis' next fight.

WBC cruiserweight champion

Briedis vs. Huck

Due to Tony Bellew fighting David Haye instead of taking on Briedis, the WBC ordered a match for the interim WBC cruiserweight title between Marco Huck and Briedis. The winner would earn a fight with Bellew for the full WBC title or possibly be elevated to full championship status if Bellew decided to vacate and stay at heavyweight. As Bellew didn't plan to defend his title for a while, he vacated the title on March 2017.

On April 1, 2017 Briedis captured the vacant WBC cruiserweight title by defeating Huck via a dominant unanimous decision (118-109, 117-110, 116-111). Huck was deducted a point after an accidental headbutt. He was able to outbox the two-time champion Huck and prevent him from having any success on the inside during the fight. Some boxing pundits had Briedis winning every round in the fight. The IBO title, previously held by Huck, became vacant due to Briedis not paying the sanctioning fees.

2017–18: World Boxing Super Series

On June 2, 2017 Briedis announced that he would take part in the inaugural World Boxing Super Series, where the winner would receive a grand prize as well as the Muhammad Ali Trophy. Briedis described the bracket style tournament as the 'Champions League of boxing'.

Briedis vs. Perez

At the Draft Gala, which took place on July 8 in Monte Carlo, Briedis chose former heavyweight contender Mike Perez (22-2-1, 14 KOs) as his quarter final opponent. Perez had been out of action for 25 months before moving down to the 200 pound limit division and won his first fight at that weight in a first-round knockout win on June 10, 2017. On July 22, the WBSS announced the fight would take place in Briedis' home country of Latvia at the Rīga Arēna in Riga on September 30, 2017. This was the 8th time Briedis fought at the arena.

Briedis won a scrappy fight in his hometown, beating Mike Perez by unanimous decision after 12 rounds (116-110, 115-111, 114-112). Perez was deducted a point in round 3 following an accidental headbutt. Briedis was also docked a point during round 10 for excessive holding. With the win, Briedis moved on to the semifinals to face top-seeded Oleksandr Usyk.

Briedis vs. Usyk

Briedis had the next fight against Oleksandr Usyk (13–0, 11 KOs), following the latter's win over veteran Marco Huck. In November 2017, it was reported the fight would take place on 27 January 2018 in Riga, Latvia, a week before Gassiev vs. Dorticos takes place. Arēna Rīga was confirmed as the location by Comosa's Chief Boxing Officer Kalle Sauerland. Usyk came in at 199.5 pounds and Briedis weighed 199.1 pounds. Usyk moved on to the final of the tournament after defeating Briedis via majority decision. With a high work rate, Usyk controlled most of the fight with his jab put on pressure when needed. Briedis was credited with landing the harder punches. The opening four rounds where closely contested and Usyk was cut from a head-butt over his right eye in round 3. From round 5, Usyk became busier and took control of the fight, although he was still hit with some hard shots to the head from Briedis. One judge scored the fight 114-114, whilst the remaining two judges scored the fight 115-113 in favour of Usyk giving him the win. After the fight, Usyk stated it was the hardest fight of his career. According to CompuBox Stats, Usyk landed 212 of 848 punches thrown (25%) and Briedis was more accurate, landing 195 of his 579 thrown (33.7%). Usyk landed 40% of his power punches. Many boxers and pundits praised the fight.

Reserve fight

On 28 June 2018, Briedis began training for his next bout, which was speculated to take place on the undercard of the WBSS final on 21 July at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow. His opponent was later announced to be French boxer Brandon Deslaurier (11-1-1, 1 KO). Briedis was also confirmed as the WBSS final substitute in case either Usyk or Murat Gassiev could not compete. The bout with Deslaurier was scheduled for 10 rounds. Briedis went the 10 round distance defeating Deslaurier via unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 100-90 for Briedis.

2018–19: World Boxing Super Series

In August 2018, Briedis, along with Yuniel Dorticos, entered a second edition of the cruiserweight Super Series. Unlike the inaugural tournament, there was no world champions, as Usyk had unified all the titles. Mateusz Masternak, Krzysztof Głowacki and Maxim Vlasov where other top contenders to join.

Briedis vs. Gevor

As the #1 see, Briedis chose to fight German boxer Noel Gevor (23-1, 10 KOs). On September 26, it was announced that the Briedis vs. Gevor bout, along with the Głowacki vs. Vlasov would take place as a doubleheader on November 10 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, USA.

Briedis vs. Głowacki

15 Jun, 2019 Briedis won WBO cruiserweight title in a controversial fight against Krzysztof Głowacki (31-1, 19 KOs). Briedis was stripped of the belt later by refusing to defend it in a direct rematch fight with Głowacki rather than proceeding with the World Boxing Super Series tournament Final.

Briedis vs. Dorticos

Briedis surname stands for "Stag" in Latvian language which is where his logo comes from.