Corrie Sanders got knocked cold by a sparring partner who did absolutely zero else in his career. Take away the Lewis win and Oliver McCall beat Fres Oquendo, Lance Whitaker, Henry Akinwande, Larry Holmes, Francesco Damiani, Jesse Ferguson and Bruce Seldon, among others. Take away the Corrie Sanders win and Nate Tubbs did zilch. But because they both sparred with Mike Tyson, I guess they are practically the same guy? You literally DKSAB. Thanks for making that clear.
Corrie stops him imo, the Wlad he fought was pretty similar to Joshua in that he was robotic and methodical, but built like a brick shithouse. Now Joshua isn't as timid as Wlad was and wouldn't freeze up quote so badly, but I think the speed and precision on Corrie's left hand is enough to sneak in through Joshua's patchy defence and it's definitely hard enough to KO AJ. @Serge had an amazing post, linking interviews and a quotes from CWs and even a LHW (Czyz iirc) detailing the speed of hand that Sanders possessed. Combine that with his ability to have Vitali reeling and icing an ATG HW in 2 rounds and you're looking at a very underrated beast. Not to mention most HWs don't have much experience with southpaws.
I would pick Sanders in this one, and that's even though I think Joshua is a pretty good HW, A prime Sanders had good movement laterally and a fast, busy jab. He had big power, great handspeed and a dynamite left straight. People think that the version Wlad faced was prime. Uh, no. He was in his later 30's after a career spent under-training. His feet looked like he was walking through treacle. His stamina by that time was also shot. Watch Sanders vs Puritty to see what he could do. Round 12 he was still moving beautifully and snapping out his shots. This content is protected If you watch AJ vs Wlad, it's clear that Joshua is good at dodging hooks and looped punches, but whenever Wlad fired out straight shots like a jab or straight right, he had much more success with it. After a bit of a firefight Joshua was gasping for his second wind and Wlad let him off the hook for 5 rounds. Against Ruiz, it's clear that Joshua did not enjoy the speed of Ruiz, and ended up getting clobbered when he tried to slug it out. Povetkin, even though he was a much older fighter and past his best, had AJ in a spot of bother and had no trouble landing. In Sanders we have a combination of speed and accurate, straight punching, as well as power. Sanders was fearless in the ring. He had no problem with an OK Corral style shootout and if he got AJ hurt he wouldn't sit back and write a thesis on boxing and the dynamics of the jab, for half the fight like Wlad. Certainly Joshua would have his own chances. A guy as powerful as AJ is a danger to anybody. Even Joshua is somewhat stiff-looking, his fundamentals are good. That's why he is where he is. But stylistically, I'm pretty sure that Sanders would find a home for his straight left before Joshua got going, and I'm pretty sure that he'd settle the matter there. The longer the fight goes on, the worse for AJ and his bulging, oxygen-sucking muscles, imho.
If Sanders is as good as some are suggesting it seems a bit odd his resume is so thin aside from the Wladimir win. It seems like a tremendous waste
He got away with unorthodox fundamentals because he was such a unicorn talent. I love Povetkin but he wishes he had 70% of Corrie's athleticism.
It’s a shame that guy was never properly developed or matched in his prime. I think he could have beaten a lot of top flight dudes or certainly given them hell.
I’ll have to go back and watch more Sanders...all I remember of him was his straight stance quick hands. Don’t really remember much of athleticism from him. I def remember feeling he could have been so much better then he was.
He could have trained harder and focused more on boxing rather than golf. He was an excellent rugger as a teen and ran 100m in 11 flat.
