In head to head match ups on this forum definitely. In terms of casuals being aware of him hes probably a bit underrated. Hes slightly better than someone like Tommy Morrison imo and most people have never heard of him.
On this forum he’s a minor god. Yet his resume is based literally on one win. He lost four fights, all by KO. Including one to Nate Tubbs, who only beat three other fighters with winning records in his entire career — a 1-0 guy in his debut, Sim Warrior (great name) who ended up 4-12 and two journeymen on their way down who had both lost 5 of their last 6 when they fought Nate. The Tubbs fight should define Sanders as much as the Wlad win. If you dissect his record, you’ll find there’s not much there — some carefully handpicked opponents with names and every truly live foe he faced not named Wlad defeated him. Corrie is overrated as a fighter but probably underrated as a golfer and as a courageous, selfless human being given how he lost his life literally acting as a human shield for his daughter when armed robbers attacked a restaurant while they were there.
Nah he's underrated. Most people have seen like 2 fights of his, against the Klitsckos. You have to realise that the fighter we see there is the old version of Sanders. When he was younger he was faster, much more mobile and had good stamina. The older version of Sanders hit harder than his younger self, but his younger self was a much much better boxer. He basically pissed his career away with a 2nd rate promoter and through inactivity. After a point his heart wasn't really in boxing anymore and you can see his slow physical decline. I followed his career from the start and he was something special.
He was the white Ike Ibeabuchi in terms of ratings... Both had tons of unrealized promise. Corrie got to fight much longer so that the wheels came off as his interest waned.
A tall, fast, southpaw at a time there were almost no southpaw heavyweights, overrated or underrated, doubt that anybody who stepped into the ring with Sanders thought it'd be easy. Sanders was going to be dangerous all the way, even if the opponent was good at fighting southpaws, Sanders still had the home run punch. If the opponent had either not fought any/many southpaws or had a hard time picking up punches from southpaws, there is a good chance he was getting knocked out. Dangerous fight for anybody.
Maybe. He had talent, had some good performances, had some average ones. He should have come to the States early in his career, if he wanted to make a name for himself. He didn't, and chose to be a big fish in a small pond, being promoted by a promotion with limited ties abroad, and being trained by a trainer of some ability, but in my opinion not a world-class trainer. But they were all friends, so it was a family-like vibe. It had it's good side and bad. A Manny Steward would have made Sanders maybe something special.
He gets over rated based upon his single good win. Having said that, I am surprised that he was not more successful than he was!
Yet, agree. It was unfortunately a small-time mentality that plagued many South African fighters. Keep everything local and familiar. Only Coetzee looked at the bigger picture. That mentality is fine up to a point. But eventually it becomes a problem because your access to everything is limited, especially in a country that is not geographically well-situated. After defeating Du Plooy, Sanders should have gone abroad. That would have been the perfect time for him to go.
Overrated in a H2H sense. Although he was good enough to destroy Wlad and made him duck the rematch. And that was Sanders past his prime. Overall He was a good fighter but he wasn't very good on the front foot and his defense was non-existent. He was best on the backfoot picking guys off
