By Elliot Foster

Shannon Briggs will face a late replacement opponent this weekend.

The former WBO champion, 59-6-1 (52 KOs), had been set to come up against former European champion Alexander Dimitrenko on May 21.

Briggs is scheduled to box over 10 rounds on the undercard of ‘Haye Day’ –– which is topped by the second fight of David Haye’s comeback against Arnold Gjergjaj –– at London’s O2 Arena, exclusively live on free-to-air channel Dave.

And although the 44-year-old Brooklyn native is still set to appear on the card ahead of a fight with Haye in the autumn, he’ll face different opposition than first announced.

Dimitrenko (38-2, 24 KOs), 33, had maintained, despite him being announced as ‘The Cannon’s’ opponent, that he had not received a contract and wouldn’t be travelling to the UK this Saturday to face Briggs.

So Briggs, who has been out of the ring since last September when he stopped Michael Marrone inside two rounds in Florida, will now come against Jakov Gospic.

Gospic, 17-14 (12 KOs), is well known on these shores, having shared the ring with the likes of Gary Cornish, Matt Skelton and, most recently, Dereck Chisora.

The 33-year-old Croatian has been stopped eight times in his 14 defeats but will be have been brought in to give Briggs, who was only granted his British Boxing Board of Control licence on Wednesday, some much-needed ring time ahead of his upcoming showdown with Haye.