Shannon Briggs has spent his whole life fighting.

And at 37, an age when other men like him -- if there are other 6-foot-5, 280-pound former world heavyweight boxing champions nicknamed ''The Cannon'' -- are hanging up the gloves because they're worn out or brain-addled from too many punches to the head, Briggs is energetic, as clear-headed as he's ever been and ready for a few more rounds.

The short of the story is that Briggs, a Pembroke Pines resident by way of Brooklyn, has kept his boxing gloves on in hopes of recapturing a world championship title.

But then there's the long of the story. Ask Briggs what has made him most ready to fight again, and he won't talk about his diet or sparring regimen. Rather, he'll tell you, ``I've learned how to be a complete man -- father, partner, neighbor, you name it. And that has given me peace of mind. And peace of mind has given me focus. And anyone who knows boxing knows that focus is half the battle.''

An admirable but run-of-the-mill take from any man, but when the path is as rocky as Briggs' -- a journey of sickness, homelessness, brushes with the law and the burden of an addicted loved one -- it is a significant achievement.

Briggs says his ''first fight'' was being born with chronic asthma.

``From the day I came out of the womb, my mom used to tell me I was punching and snarling because I just wanted to live.''

There were other hardships. His father left when he was a toddler; his stepfather started off well but wound up in prison before Briggs was 10.

At around that time, Briggs learned his mother, Margie, had become addicted to heroin. She lost her nursing job because of her drug habit, and they were evicted from their Brooklyn apartment when he was 13.

Within two years, Briggs made the transformation from shy kid to street brawler -- a defense against bullies, he says -- and at 17 he was arrested and briefly jailed on burglary charges.

Punishment was withheld on the condition that Briggs stay out of trouble. The experience was enough to make him listen when his mother and a boxing trainer pushed him to take his fists to Brooklyn's famed Starrett City Gym.

``She gave me a brand new pair of boxing gloves and told me if I was going to fight, I should box. And if I was going to box to do it right.''

AMATEUR ELITE

Within a few years, Briggs was among the elites of the amateur boxing world. He won a New York Daily News Golden Gloves boxing title, an Empire State Games championship and a national Police Athletic League belt. He earned the Silver Medal in the heavyweight division at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana and, at age 21, the U.S. amateur heavyweight championship.

''If only I could have stopped there,'' Briggs says with a wry laugh.

What he means is, it would have been nice to avoid the hand injury that cost him 1992 Summer Olympics consideration. Instead, he hit a yearlong slump that left him selling hotdogs at the Washington Monument to make ends meet.

He returned to New York humbled, ready to work with anyone who believed in him. Ultimately it was a stockbroker-turned-boxing manager named Marc Roberts who took Briggs under his wing and helped him turn pro in 1992.

He earned a 25-1 record through 1996, and the next year took a 12-round decision from boxing legend George Foreman to win his first title, the Linear Heavyweight Championship, awarded to the fighter who beats the previous undisputed champ.

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