Shannon Briggs had his first professional fight in 1992. So it was fitting that he waited until the last second to score a stunning knockout victory over WBO heavyweight champion Sergei Liakhovich Saturday night.

``It's been a long, hard road, (and) life, but I got here,'' Briggs said.

Briggs, a 34-year-old from Brooklyn, floored Liakhovich with a pair of heavy right hands with 27 seconds remaining in the 12-round bout. After Liakhovich rose, Briggs hit him with three more punches and was trying to land another when Liakhovich tumbled through the ropes without being hit.

Referee Bobby Ferrara called the fight at 2:59 of the 12th round, and a dazed Liakhovich sat in a ringside chair for several minutes before returning to the ring.

``I said I was going to bring the belt back to America, and I did that,'' Briggs said. ``I'm a nobody, a nothing kid from Brownsville.''

The other three major heavyweight titles belong to fighters from former Soviet bloc countries.

This was Briggs' (48-4-1 with 41 KOs) second title fight. In the first, Briggs was stopped by Lennox Lewis in 1998.

The fight was staged in the infield of Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and it ended in the boxing equivalent of a walk-off home run.

Through 11 rounds, judges Dennis Nelson and Jose Rivera had Liakhovich leading 106-103 and Chris Wilson had the champ ahead 105-104.

By those counts, Liakhovich would have retained the title if he had simply managed to remain standing at the end. But he couldn't.

``I thought it was close, maybe a little forward for me,'' Liakhovich (23-2 with 14 KOs) said. ``He caught me pretty good with one. It was a good punch.''

It was the first title defence for Liakhovich, a native of Belarus who lives in nearby Scottsdale.

The late flurry was the only real action in the entire fight.

The Don King promotion was the first heavyweight title fight in Arizona history, and judging by the angry reaction of the sparse Chase Field crowd, it may be the last for a while.

Many began booing as the fighters slowly circled for the first 30 seconds. The boos grew louder as neither man mounted anything resembling an attack in the second and third rounds.

King apparently didn't hear the jeers. ``The crowd was just tremendous,'' he said.

Liakhovich gave up 30 pounds to Briggs, who weighed in at 268 pounds, and his strategy seemed to be to avoid Briggs' powerful punch without throwing many of his own. Briggs, whose nickname is ``The Cannon,'' had promised to knock Liakhovich out within two rounds. But he also threw few punches, at least until the end.

At one point in the fourth round, Liakhovich leaned against the ropes with his hands in front of his face but Briggs refused to punch him.

Afterward, Briggs admitted that he wasn't in top shape for the fight.

``I'll be honest with you, I was exhausted,'' Briggs said. ``I didn't want to shoot my load too much. I thought that was their plan, to wait me out. I figured after five or six rounds, they'd try to step up the gas because they'd figure I'd be tired. I was holding back a little bit. My mistake.''

Liakhovich never made him pay for the mistake.

``In the 12th round, (trainer) Chuck McGregor gave me a tongue-lashing,'' Briggs said. ``I had to put in on the line, man. It was one second left. I don't know what to say.''