BoxRec

Big punching former WBO Heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders returns on Friday, he is fighting Colin Wilson (Austrailian Champion) in South Africa.

Corrie might be a part time golfer who was never really that good, but at least he was a geniunally exciting fighter.

Valuev vs Sanders would be quite entertaining.

He must be in his 40s by now, perhaps he's blown his money?

Massive puncher with very quick hands for a BIG bloke, he's very exciting for the first 3 or 4 rounds, but he lacked the stamina to reach the very top. He's always good to watch, but as Nick said he's got to be at least 40

nickd wrote:He must be in his 40s by now, perhaps he's blown his money?

Apparently he is now 40.

I saw his last fight, vs Alexei Varakin (the guy who was drab vs Greenberg last time). He was carrying more pounds than usual and again looked very vulnerable (rocked badly in round one) but he composed himself and showed the power in the second.

I hope Sanders hasn't blown the money... just sees the chance to make more.

With Klitchsko now #1 again and Vitali rumoured to be coming back, Sanders knows he can make some money fighting these two again.

Christ since Lewis retired, it's like weevils coming out from under a rotten log. Look how many old stagers we have campaigning, hell Briggs, a guy Lennox whooped shitless several years back, is a bloody champion now.

I know the heavyweight division has had it's lows before, but this has surely got to be the very lowest point ever. The division is filled with 35+ year olds, hell, Wlad who is over 30 is considered young!

The fact that anyone thinks Sam Peter is one for the future says it all, the guy is absolutely shit and would have been a top 30 fighter at best 10-15
years ago.

Wlad is about the best we have right now, he's learnt how to hang on for dear life when he's hurt, but he's got huge flaws which a talented big man would exploit.

There's no sign of any trailblazing young heavyweight in sight either.

Didn't Tyson batter Sanders in his recent PPV exhibition?

Different Sanders, Tyson beat T Rex Sanders.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:The fact that anyone thinks Sam Peter is one for the future says it all, the guy is absolutely shit and would have been a top 30 fighter at best 10-15 years ago. .

I've never understood the hype around Sam Peters either. When there was all that fuss about him KO'ing Jeremy Williams I just thought " Impressive looking KO for the cameras but Akinwande did the same thing years ago".

There was all this rubbish about Peters being the new Tyson, new Ray Mercer maybe but not the next Tyson thats for sure.

Peter is a big, strong, rugged fighter and I wish him well but he is far from the saviour of the Heavyweight division.

Has the next truely great Heavyweight even walked into his local amateur gym yet?

nickd wrote:He must be in his 40s by now, perhaps he's blown his money?

I believe he didn't make the cut but now it looks like he's ready to TEE off on Wilson.

And another thing, I wish Vitali Klitchsko could finish a sentence without mentioning the words Lennox Lewis.

KOJOE90 wrote:And another thing, I wish Vitali Klitchsko could finish a sentence without mentioning the words Lennox Lewis.

Yeah he was completely obsessed with him, wasn't he. That fight seems like so long ago, I think that's the last time I was genuinely excited about a heavyweight title fight. There hasn't been one since then where I felt I would happily stay up all night in order to see it live.

KOJOE90 wrote:

jamesmcdonnell wrote:The fact that anyone thinks Sam Peter is one for the future says it all, the guy is absolutely shit and would have been a top 30 fighter at best 10-15 years ago. .

I've never understood the hype around Sam Peters either. When there was all that fuss about him KO'ing Jeremy Williams I just thought " Impressive looking KO for the cameras but Akinwande did the same thing years ago".

There was all this rubbish about Peters being the new Tyson, new Ray Mercer maybe but not the next Tyson thats for sure.

Peter is a big, strong, rugged fighter and I wish him well but he is far from the saviour of the Heavyweight division.

Has the next truely great Heavyweight even walked into his local amateur gym yet?

I think maybe we should start getting used to the fact that there might never be a truly great heavyweight again.

The best athletes are no longer trying out boxing. It's far too risky, especially when you consider how it went for the likes of Michael Grant. It doesn't matter if you're a great athlete, a lot of them only know if they can succeed as a heavyweight after they've been smashed in the face harder than they could ever imagine and realise they are still on their feet. With a lot of prospects, they don't always get their chin checked until they're well into their career and by then it's make or break time and too late to fall back onto something else. But then you have exceptions like Wlad who can rely on his size and offensive skills enough to get by most of the time. Speaking of Wlad, after Brewster and Sanders I don't think anybody will be surprised if he gets sparked again at any point in his career. The same could never be said for Ali, Foreman, Tyson & Lewis (debatable).

With Lewis it was slightly different. Against McCall, Lewis had technical flaws which Steward spotted, and McCall was actually given proper training time and facilities by Don King to prepare for the fight properly, as Don wanted to get his hands on that title badly.

Second time around, and ageing, complacement and rather out of shape Lewis started to gas and panic and got caught my a massive shot. The real Lewis turned up next fight and restored order convincingly with one of the best right hands shots ever thrown by a heavyweight.

With Wlad, there's a mental frailty there. He probably has a better chin than Lewis, but there's something inside of him that fights scared, and when the other guy shows no inclination of going anywhere and starts tagging him, panic seems to set in.

Luckily for Wlad, there are few heavyweights campaigning currnently, if any, who have the skill/self belief/physicality to put him under pressure. A decent reasonably big heavyweight with hand speed and a punch who can put it together, would I think be able to stop Wlad, but come on, who is there around like that.

Maybe Valuev's physical presence will unsettle Wlad, or Maybe Briggs will land a honey punch early on and take Wlad out of his groove, but these are outside chances, especially the latter.

That aside, we have a paper thin division, where even a decent performance by Chris Areola the other week makes me zero in on him as a possible hope. Who else is there, Chageav, Ibragimov who already has displayed some flaws?

What we are missing is a young confident fighter who is just blowing people away. I guess wlad was doing so early on, as was Vitali, but both of them faced terribly weak opponents most of their careers.

He's not my cup of tea in terms of fighting style, but Dimentrenko looks just about the best prospect for me.

Keep on saying it, but watching early Danny Williams fights and I cannot help thinking what could have been.

Williams was never that good IMO, always failed to see what all the fuss was about.

nickd wrote:Williams was never that good IMO, always failed to see what all the fuss was about.

Not saying he was Ali or even Vitali Klitchsko, but was every bit as good as the likes of Shannon Briggs, Ray Austin etc.

stujones wrote:

nickd wrote:Williams was never that good IMO, always failed to see what all the fuss was about.

Not saying he was Ali or even Vitali Klitchsko, but was every bit as good as the likes of Shannon Briggs, Ray Austin etc.

Thats not saying much! ;)

johnswan1 wrote:The best athletes are no longer trying out boxing. It's far too risky, especially when you consider how it went for the likes of Michael Grant. It doesn't matter if you're a great athlete, a lot of them only know if they can succeed as a heavyweight after they've been smashed in the face harder than they could ever imagine and realise they are still on their feet. With a lot of prospects, they don't always get their chin checked until they're well into their career and by then it's make or break time and too late to fall back onto something else. But then you have exceptions like Wlad who can rely on his size and offensive skills enough to get by most of the time. Speaking of Wlad, after Brewster and Sanders I don't think anybody will be surprised if he gets sparked again at any point in his career. The same could never be said for Ali, Foreman, Tyson & Lewis (debatable).

Exactly. Being a great athlete means smeg all in boxing.

Look at Joe Frazier in that superstars competition when he was in his prime. He couldn't run, coulnd't lift weights and almost drown himself in five feet of water.

Even in the UK version of superstars Minter and Conteh finished near enough dead last but were top level boxers.

Bit harsh on Conteh, he won it!

jamesmcdonnell wrote:He probably has a better chin than Lewis,

get out of town mate.

no way would lewis have fallen apart the way wlad did against sanders.

lewis was bombed with 1 shot twice and put out of it.

klitschko had the chance to recover in all his fights and failed miserably.

johnswan1 wrote:

KOJOE90 wrote:And another thing, I wish Vitali Klitchsko could finish a sentence without mentioning the words Lennox Lewis.

Yeah he was completely obsessed with him, wasn't he. That fight seems like so long ago, I think that's the last time I was genuinely excited about a heavyweight title fight. There hasn't been one since then where I felt I would happily stay up all night in order to see it live.

Vitali needs to learn that constantly calling out a 41 year old guy will not impress anyone, either come back now or shut the hell up about it. He might as well say he'll come out of retirement only to fight Ali.

nickd wrote:He must be in his 40s by now, perhaps he's blown his money?

Sad story, seems like he was ripped off by his manager.

http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-a ... imir-back/

Still. if that's a recent photo he looks trim and could bring excitement (if only 4 or 5 rounds at a time).

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

jamesmcdonnell wrote:He probably has a better chin than Lewis,

get out of town mate.

no way would lewis have fallen apart the way wlad did against sanders.

lewis was bombed with 1 shot twice and put out of it.

klitschko had the chance to recover in all his fights and failed miserably.

I have to agree with James here. Although I spoke of Wlad getting "sparked", he didn't. Lewis was dropped badly with single shots and was completely out of it. This didn't happen with Wlad. He would panic any time he got hit cleanly and he would go down as a result, but he was not being put out cold as Lewis was.

But I don't agree that Valeuv would give Wlad any problems. I think Wlad would jump at the chance to take this fight. Valeuv is big but slow and despite Wlad being at a height disadvantage, I think he would completely destroy the giant very easily and would look impressive in doing so.