Yeah he was bit of a one trick pony. All he really had was his counter left hand and with his height, speed and power it's all he really needed up to a certain level. If he had spent as much time on his boxing craft as he did on his golf game he could of perhaps fully utilised all his untapped potential.
Al Cole Best I've Faced BEST JAB Hasim Rahman: He surprised me. I always used to out jab people; it seems Hasim outreached me. He had a good jab. It was hard to get around. BEST DEFENSE Leon Taylor: Juan Carlos Gomez he was very elusive and quick and that made it difficult to land clean shots. I really couldn’t hit Keith McMurry. Leon Taylor was very slick and agile. He was so hard to hit him, I had to work really hard to hit him. BEST HANDSPEED Corrie Sanders: He had handspeed like Roy Jones Jr. With Corrie, I didn’t get to see his shots coming. BEST FOOTWORK Juan Carlos Gomez: Sometimes it looked like he was there and he wasn’t there. SMARTEST Taylor: His angles and deception. He knew my move before I did. STRONGEST Tim Witherspoon: Witherspoon was strong, I couldn’t push Witherspoon around. BEST CHIN Witherspoon: The only time I hurt him was to the body. He spat out his mouthpiece. BEST PUNCHER Sanders: One of the hardest hitters was Nate Miller. Sultan Ibragimov was a big puncher but I would say Corrie Sanders. I was stopped four times but he was the only one I was hurt by. I was dazed by Corrie Sanders. He hit me, I went down, got back up but when Corrie came in trying to finish me off his handspeed was everywhere. BEST BOXING SKILLS Taylor: Gomez was a talented guy. Taylor was skillful. I could throw anything and he could counter me. He was technically sound. He was very awkward. I had a really hard time, I had to grow and learn how to fight better. He used to beat up Riddick Bowe and Mark Breland in sparring. BEST OVERALL Sanders: I think Corrie was a heavyweight but he had handspeed like Roy Jones. He put Rahman down a few times and knocked out Wladimir Klitschko. Nobody else did what he did to me.
He gave K2 fits.. he was good. In fact had he dedicated himself more and had the right career guidance he could have been even better.. hard hitting fast handed southpaw heavyweight they don't come along often
Sanders was really athletic for a fat guy, and he had great reactions to go along with his explosiveness. He slept on his talents though, big time. He could have been something special but he never trained and relied too much on his power towards the end. He looked like a clubfighter against Vitali and still managed to rock him and knock him down.
Being in South Africa didn't help him, if he'd been a US or UK fighter he'd have got more openings. The Rahman and K2 fights came too late in his career despite the one massive upset win and two very credible losses.
All of the top heavies would be in serious trouble if Sanders were around now, he could have beaten any of them. I don't think he gets overrated. He is spoken of in nearly the exact same way all the time, as far as I can recall, & the description is always big, quick, heavy-handed southpaw with good skills and perhaps wasted potential. I guess the problems come with seeing the K Bros fights as either more or less than what they actually were, which is a good win for Vitali, and a revealing of Vlad's inability to change-up his strategies on the fly.
Parries the right hand with his left glove and then in the blink of an eye euthanizes his opponent with the same hand This content is protected
A lot has already been said but the guy was a dangerous fighter to face. Tall rangy and good power in the left. Was he elite, no, but he faced some solid opposition and beat them. The step up to true world class probably came to late as he'd faced a lot of guys who didn't make it to that next level. Guys like Sprott who were solid Euro fighters but were outclassed by top line fighters and he was inconsistent. But he gave Rahman a tough fight and had him down and Rahamn later admitted he'd never been hit so hard at that point in his career. Rahman was probably at his best during this period as he'd go on to eventually beat Lewis before himself being a bit up and down against top opposition. After loosing to Rock Sanders then runs through his next few opponents including Wlad but struggles against Vitali and his career doesn't go on to much longer. I think he spent his best years fighting cannon fodder and didn't sharpen himself enough against the better fighters the division had to offer. But he was dangerous and could obviously punch and with the heavy's not facing many left handers he gave guys some problems. So a myth? No he stopped 31 of 40ish opponents that's not terrible at all and look how many of those wins are in the first 3 rounds. Later as his conditioning dropped so did the stoppages he doesn't have many late in fights but that's a seperate argument. A very good fighter with some obvious flaws. Plenty of them about and he was a tough night for most. Just ask Wlad.