How was Corrie Sanders perceived during his times?

I was baby during these times but I think there is a slight rewriting of history regarding Corrie Sanders.

Yes he was a Southpaw and could be dangerous but he was only ranked in top 10 briefly after beating Wladimir.

Alot of people say he was avoided but I don't think that's really true he just had losses at the wrong times. The Nate Tubbs loss derailed his career for awhile, and then he lost to Rahman in a war that had he won he could've got a shot at Lewis.

Judging by Wladimir fight he looks like he could've been a handful for alot of Heavyweights but he didn't show it enough against top opposition.

 

An underachiever, not dedicated to the degree required to stay at the top .. he was very fast and quite a hitter but to me how does that guy lose to Rahman in an important televised bout, maybe Rachman's biggest win other than Lennox ? He actually showed his biggest heart to me against Vitali but either was a bit past it or Vitali was too tough a match up regardless ...

 

Classic is only useful in my experience when you have two long-gone historical fighters pitted against each other. Otherwise there's minimal objectivity.

 

In the States, nobody paid attention to him.

I subscribed to a weekly British boxing magazine in the 1990s, and sometimes his fights would be covered in there. But his coverage in the U.S. was nothing like Gerrie Coetzee's had been. (Cedric wasn't a big promoter in the U.S. like King, Arum, the Duvas or most promoters had been.)

Sanders appeared on a couple of Cedric Kushner 'Heavyweight Explosion' cards on SportsChannel America (a basic cable channel from that era). And he popped up on an HBO card where he got stopped by Rahman. Otherwise, nobody talked much about him at all. He was essentially on his way out and was more interested in playing golf when he got the Klitschko fight.

His upset of Wlad Klitschko probably should be viewed as an even bigger upset all-time than it actually is. NOBODY saw that coming. NOBODY. Not one person. No matter what anyone says. If they say they called it, they're lying.

Wlad was considered such a "lock" to be the next heavyweight champion by everyone that he appeared in the ring against Lennox Lewis in a world title fight in the movie "Ocean's Eleven" because that was supposed to be the next big heavyweight fight.

But Sanders wouldn't step in the ring for another 13 months after the Wlad win. He was supposed to fight Tua, Brewster and even Roy Jones, but his management couldn't get any of those fights over the line.

Sanders ended up vacating and got a fight for the vacant WBC and Ring belt against Vitali in the United States, but he fell short. That was kind of it. Nobody paid much attention to him after that, either.

He was never really considerd a top heavyweight by US fans (until he faced Vitali). People knew him. But there wasn't any buzz around him. And when there finally was, it was over fast.

Honestly, Courage Tshabalala, another South African heavyweight from that era, probably got a bigger push in the U.S. at the time than Sanders did.

Most of Sanders' acclaim really came from the generation of fans who have come along since then and can watch his fights online all in a bunch.

That happens to some guys. The fact he couldn't have put together some wins after beating Wlad is really disappointing.

I would've liked to have seen him against Tua, Brewster or Roy Jones before fighting Vitali.

 

He basically flew under the radar in the U.S. until knocking out Wlad.

The Rahman fight could’ve been his coming out party on HBO, but he eventually gassed out (not a great stoppage), and went back under the radar.

 

He didnt gassed out, he had Rahman in troubles and When he went for the ko he was countered bad with a lucky punch and thats all

 

He got stopped after blocking a bunch of punches on the ropes. It could’ve gone on longer.

That was also Rahman’s peak.

 

Rahman was lucky in that fight, Sanders had him

 

Called it. Believe it or not.

Locally in South Africa he was well known as a destroyer. Check out Nelson's autobiography about his taxi driver's reaction when he told him he'd come to SA to fight Sanders. He put away guys that gave other guys a lot of hassles. Finished Du Plooy who is known as a big hitter. Wrecked Botha in the amateurs. He trashed Levi Billups just after he ran Lewis close.

Sanders I think had problems with focusing himself be it in the ring or training. He sometimes did come in undertrained especially later in his career. But his strengths were enormous. Speed always kills and he has some very fast and accurate hands. In his early career he was more of a boxer with an Ali-style footwork, happy to use a machine gun jab and flurries from the outside. In his late career he learned to sit down on his punches more and abandoned all that footwork stuff as a bad job, mostly. To compensate he turned his offensive powers into something serious that would absolutely flatten anybody without an iron chin.

By the time he got the Klitschko fight I think he was already eyeing retirement and could be pretty inconsistent. I think he had knee problems which messed up his prep for the Rahman fight. No roadwork at all for that one. Wlad was his last slim ticket for the big time and I knew that he'd grab it like a starving lion. Wlad didn't have a particularly crafty upper body movement and relied on solid technique and size to build a win. I knew Sanders would land sooner or later and that Wlad would be in the pot when it happened.

 

A hard hitting boxer who died a courageous death.

 

Watch these fights back to back and you'll realise how he was seen in his time:

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