Was Corrie Sanders (South African) well known in the 90's?

I remember reading about him in the 90 s.
Think he held the WBU? Title for a few years back then.
But it was really the Klitschko win that brought his attention to me.

 

Not really unlike many South African fighters before him, he stayed based in South Africa rather than coming to the USA. I only saw 2 of his fights before Wlad. He brutalized Boby Czyz and he had that entertaining brawl with Rahman. What stood out for me in seeing those 2 fights were he was a fast starter, extremely aggressive, and could punch. I wasn't shocked when he beat Wlad because of his aggressive style and power.

 

In South Africa he was well known. Elsewhere he was on the radar, but failed to get a big break until Wlad. He might have done if he'd had a better camp for when he defended against Rahman. If he'd beaten Rahman we'd have seen Sanders / Lewis which should have been very entertaining.

I think part of the reason is that he was all kinds of wrong as a heavyweight: big, fast, aggressive with plenty of power and a tendency to spam combinations ... and a southpaw. As Apollo Creed's manager said "he's all wrong for us baby".

If he'd been a relentless self promoter and maybe had had better promoters in general he may have worked that into more high profile fights. But he was a reserved guy who was typically respectful and soft spoken. So he wasn't even a good heel.

That amounted to a real dangerous guy who basically brought peanuts to the table in terms of money. If I were managing a big name I'd keep them TF away from a guy like Sanders, and make more money facing less dangerous fighters. It's simple maths.

Consider Francois Botha, a solid fighter but much less dangerous than Sanders. In fact Sanders beat him 4 times in the amateurs, stopping him twice. Botha got to face everybody, because his brash personality was easy to push. Moreover he was a decent fighter and a tough dude, and would put on a good show without the name fighter risking getting blasted out.

 

He was a known commodity for sure.

I can recall news of him as an amatuer. But he was a one of a kind back then as an amatuer even----southpaw hitter that was a tall guy. There was nothing else like him.

I had to send away for vhs tapes of the guy's fights. Might get them a month > the bout. And the best you got out of media coverage was a small result in flash. but then seering the tapes, you knew unless he changed promoters his opportunities were going to be minimal.

There was nobody out there you could get for sparring going into a Sanders bout. Nothing. And since he did not have the big money behind him it was easy to avoid the guy. And once he did become more popular, it was far more talked about and discussed bouts than real bouts taking place. Just how many Brewster bouts were talked about and agrred to and still never transpired. I really wanted to see those.

Even ESPN and USA cable would have helped. It took awhile to even see him on those Cedric Kushner heavyweight explosion bouts. Those prime years just go by so fast, don't they? I always figured heavies as having a 3 or 4 year optimal timeframe. And that window closes quick even if there are the victories. Such a tough sport when all the facets of the game are not on your side.

 

Not to me. I was too young. Only sanders I knew in the 90s was colonel sanders, ha ha

 

He was a high-risk low reward fighter. I have a boxset I got from eBay several years ago that has a bunch of his fights, and Harold Volbrecht after every win would mention the top guys, Holyfield, Tyson, Lewis etc., that Corrie was ready for them, unfortunately outside of South Africa he was an unknown for the most part. Also, he held the WBU belt which probably hurt his career more than helped it as far as getting ranked by the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF.

 

I remember his name now. Not in the 90s but after he had retired. He was killed in a robbery at a restaurant in South Africa wasnt he?

 

I was a hardcore fan in the 90's, bought all the rags, subscribed to Flash, a biweekly mailed update on the international scene (there was little to no internet at the time), and traveled all over the US and even Europe to see fights. Corrie was on the radar as a possible prospect. A few of us were probably getting over our skis on his potential. The Bert Cooper win really got the hype up, again for those who followed the scene closely. Even Ring reported on that fight. Then the Nate Tubbs debacle. After that, there was a lengthy and puttering rebuilding effort where he often seemed vulnerable. Garing Lane KD'ing him on the Lewis/McCall undercard did little to help his image. He just seemed to bob up and down in visibility, on and off the radar. Part was management, part was his commitment to the sport, part was the aura of vulnerability. Also, understand that white heavies were viewed with high skepticism at the time. This was before the full throttle Eastern Euro/Ex-Soviet hordes invaded the ranks. So, he seemed a talented guy whose potential was being wasted (even Don King mentioned this several times) but who was likely just another horizontal white heavy.

 

Nate Tubbs knew who he was.

 

This was EXACTLY the way it was for me. I drank in every piece of written material on every fighter, saw the definite prospect in Sanders and then exposed by Nate Tubbs. Didn’t read a lot on him after that. Probably because he never maintained an active schedule. But by the time I did see him actually fight, he struck me as a fighter who had a big punch that would gas early.

 

His name popped up in the boxing magazines but his legend began after beating Wlad and rocking Vitali.

 

This is exactly how I remembered it.

 

There was another heavyweight around the same time named Corey Sanders, which probably didn’t help.

Side note, has anyone seen the footage from mid 2000s of Tyson and Sanders (Corey, not Corrie) in an exhibition match?

 

Corey “T-Rex” Sanders was a 6-foot-6, up to 275-pound heavyweight from Washington DC who went like 23-13 with only three stoppage losses — seven of his defeats came in his last seven fights. Lost to most of the notable guys he fought except for a KO over Oleg Maskaev but went the distance with some good guys. Tough journeyman of the nearly ‘guaranteed rounds’ variety.