How good could Corrie Sanders have been?

Discussion in 'World Boxing Forum' started by LenHarvey, Dec 27, 2024.


  1. CroBox29

    CroBox29 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Today, with this competition, it would be more difficult for him, but he could be somewhere in the Top 10, I would say the level of Bakole...
     
  2. CooperKupp

    CooperKupp “B.. but they all playin NBA basketball again!” Full Member

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    6:15 :confused: Lol If that left had landed after that nasty right uppercut… Billups would’ve been sent out of the ring. Watch the slowmo replay too. Nobody did that to Billups back then.
     
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  3. Jacques81

    Jacques81 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    He would have been WBU and WBO world heavyweight champ!!

    Oh wait...
     
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  4. LenHarvey

    LenHarvey Active Member Full Member

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    Amazing hand speed for a HW
     
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  5. Mike T

    Mike T Well-Known Member Full Member

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    A great athlete! Good pro boxer...could've been better. A serious problem for Anyone who stepped in the ring with him.
     
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  6. fourskin

    fourskin Member banned Full Member

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    He should have moved to the USA and gotten a us trainer …. Power and fast hands only problem was he didn’t snap his jab or he woulda been even more dangerous then he was !!!! And instead of playing golf he should have been in the gym more !!!
     
  7. Pierre_Coetzer

    Pierre_Coetzer Member Full Member

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    When he was good he was great. I watched quite a few of his fights when he took out the other heavyweights in South Africa.

    Could make quite a sad movie about his career and life and death. Lots of potential and could have done better...
     
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  8. Manning

    Manning Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    He fought 3 fighters who were in their peak years. Wlad, Vitali and Rahman. Who would go on to do great or elite things. Yet in all 3 fights Sanders more than held his own. That gives us a glimpse into what he could have done.
     
  9. Serge

    Serge Ginger Dracula Staff Member

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    Well he was athletic, skilful, big, could box and move very good in his prime, and he was blessed with freakish hand speed for a HW of his dimensions and crazy power too. Had he actually taken the sport as seriously as he should of he would've bare minimum achieve more than he did

    Any HW of his size whose hands are that fast and who hit that hard is a problem for anyone. How many of them throughout history has there even been? His speed and power were off the charts

    ''Corrie Sanders is easily the hardest puncher I've fought''

    “Man, he could punch,” Sprott recalled. “He was definitely the hardest puncher I’ve faced. I don’t know where he got that power from. As soon as he hit me, I said to myself, ‘I’m in trouble here’.”

    “The punches didn’t even land on my jaw. If they had, I’d have been asleep for days.”

    --Michael Sprott

    ''Sanders probably had the fastest hands I'd ever seen''

    --Al Cole

    ''Corrie Sanders was the most rounded fighter I’ve ever got in the ring with; the most skilled. You go to throw a jab, he slips and throws a southpaw left hand and you think, ‘Where the hell did that come from?’ Because I was fast and a defensive fighter, I didn’t really get hurt. He was hard to pin down as a heavyweight.

    ''Overall Sanders was very good. He was fast and he was sharp. Remember, I got in there with a heavyweight who was up-and-coming. You didn’t appreciate how fast he was for a heavyweight until you were there in front of him. He looked so easy to hit and that’s the mistake [Wladimir] Klitschko made.

    -- Johnny Nelson

    Bobby Czyz: Best I've Faced

    BEST OVERALL
    Technically, the best fighter I fought was Corrie Sanders. He was a big man, 6-foot-4, 240 pounds who had speed like a lightweight. It was unbelievable how fast he was. You couldn’t get away from, no matter where you walked, and he threw a lot of punches.

    ''He was very fast and he had really powerful hands. I’ve been in boxing for 25 years and I never fought anybody in this game that punched like Corrie Sanders.''

    --Wladimir Klitschko

    “Corrie Sanders was my most difficult opponent I ever fought. Corrie was fast, could give and take a punch. His style was dangerous and did not suit me. I was very pleased to be able to win this fight.”

    -- Vitali Klitschko

    ''I've never been hit like that in my life''

    --Hasim Rahman

    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.
     
  10. Scar

    Scar VIP Member Full Member

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    Sanders had insane power and speed. A dangerous opponent for anyone.
    May he rest in peace.
     
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  11. Dynamicpuncher

    Dynamicpuncher Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    He wasn't that competitive vs Vitali the punchstats were like 230-50 in favour of Vitali he virtually lost every round minus the 1st round.

    Losing a back and forth war vs Rahman when chinny Maskaev was able stop Rahman twice doesn't really fill me with confidence in regards to Sanders H2H ability.
     
  12. Seamus

    Seamus Proud Kulak Full Member

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    That's the way I remember it, too. There was some hype after he made Cooper quit so quickly. Then the Tubbs loss and he sort of languished, having impressive performances over B-raters Czyz and Cole, just blowing both out. Many felt the combo of Kushner's lack of influence in America and Corrie's lack of dedication or insistence on getting good fights were the cause. I do remember Don King saying he was the biggest waste of talent he had seen in his career (being a legit and exciting white heavyweight).

    He had all the athletic talent in spades. And he was tough. He was out there to KO people. But you can't fake the preparation on that level. With more dedication he would have certainly been a bigger factor in the division.
     
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