21.11.06 – By Ben Taffe: South African and former WBO heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders (40-3, 30 KO’s) returns to the ring on Firday night, to face Australian heavyweight champion Colin Wilson (32-18, 20 KO’s) at Convention Centre, Mafikeng, NWP, in South Africa. Corrie Sanders, 41, has been away from boxing for 2 years, following his last bout, a 2nd round knockout of Alexei Varakin on December 14, 2004. After that bout, Sanders retired shortly thereafter due to a back injury he suffered while training..
Still, at forty-one years old, Sanders is a very dangerous heavyweight, given his fast hands and incredible punching power, more than making up for his advanced age. Like George Foreman, Sanders punches like a mule, and there is few heavyweights that can stand up to him, even now. Part of the reason for Sander’s return to boxing, of course, is due to monetary reasons.
Like many boxers, he’s made some bad decisions with his finances, making it necessary for him to come back. More importantly, though, is because he’s seen the talent quality of the current heavyweight champions, one of which has already destroyed (Wladimir Klitschko), and figures he has a good chance of beating most, if not all of them.
Without someone like Vitali Klitschko to worry about, I’d have to agree with Sander’s way of thinking. Even now, I doubt that Wladimir Klitschko, the current IBF heavyweight champion, could handle Sander’s power. Though Wladimir has learned much under Steward’s training, he hasn’t seemed to improve on taking monster shots, or dealing with tough southpaws like Sanders. Of the current heavyweight champions, Wladmir is the one that Sanders says he wants to fight. However, before doing so, Sanders first must beat Wilson, on Friday night.
If Sanders can get by Wilson, a high probability, Sanders says he wants to fight for the title after that. Clearly, this would be a great revenge match for Wladimir, and would help him heal some of his mental anguish following the last time they fought. However, it remains to be seen whether Wladimir would be brave enough to take on someone as dangerous as Sanders, particularly because Wladimir was so easily dominated.
Sanders is notable for being a tall heavyweight, at 6’4,” with incredibly fast hands, and awesome punching power, made even more dangerous with his Southpaw fighting stance. While he’s blessed with abnormal talent, his career has never matched his potential, until late. He spent much of his first 11 years as a professional boxer fighting B-level fighters, only losing once to Nate Tubbs, by 2nd round knockout in 1994.
In 2000, Sanders took on Hasim Rahman, and was stopped in the 7th round, in a fight that Sanders had Rahman almost out. However, Sander’s problems with conditioning would come back to haunt him, allowing Rahman back into the fight. After this bout, Sanders seemed to lose interest in boxing, fighting only twice in the next years, before meeting up with Wladimir Klitschko, then the WBO heavyweight champion.
From the start, Wladimir appeared to have taken Sanders lightly, perhaps not knowing about Sander’s reputation as a quick knockout artist. However, Wladmir soon found out, as blitzed Wladmir, landing repeated straight left hands, that knocked Wladmir down 4 times, before the fight was stopped in the 2nd round. However, instead of defending his newly won WBO heavyweight title against Lamon Brewster, Sanders chose to fight Wladmir’s brother, Vitali Klitschko, fighting him for the vacant WBC heavyweight title on April 2004.
In the first round, Sanders had Vitali hurt, after catching him by surprise with a big left hand. Unfortunately, Sanders was unable to finish Vitali, and he let the fight get away from him. As in other bouts, Sanders looked poorly conditioned, and he quickly ran out of energy by the 8th round, and lost by TKO.