While a showdown between WBO heavyweight kingpin Corrie Sanders and WBA champion Roy Jones Jnr is the stuff legends are made of, this proposed superfight is more likely to find itself listed under boxing’s fairy-tale category in the future.
The idea of seeing the hard-hitting South African against a man rated as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers the world has seen to date is an exciting prospect, but is highly unlikely ever to happen.
Sanders signed to face Jones in November and United States television giant HBO was very keen to broadcast what would have been one of the best match-ups currently available on the circuit.
In Sanders and Jones we have arguably the two fastest men in the heavyweight division.
When Jones’s promoter Murad Muhammad stated recently that the fight was a done deal, Jones retorted there were only two reasons which will make him get into the ring with the South African — the first being that the WBO title must be on the line.
The WBO has stated that it will not sanction the Jones fight ahead of Sanders defending against its mandatory challenger, Lamont Brewster. If Sanders fights anybody other than Brewster next, it will strip him of the title.
Adding fuel to the fire, the WBO’s number-one contender, David Tua, has filed a request to the organisation to strip Sanders and to match him with Brewster for the vacant title.
Tua’s motivation is that Sanders had 90 days to defend against Brewster, following his sensational victory over Wladimir Klitschko in March. That deadline has expired.
A purse-bid was held last week for the Sanders-Brewster bout and Klitschko’s promoter, Universum, won the right to stage the fight.
The second factor that will coax Jones to face Sanders is if he receives more money for the fight than he received when he beat John Ruiz for the WBA title, also in March.
Jones received $10-million for that history-making bout and sees no reason why he should receive the same (as is currently being offered to him) for fighting a man considered far more dangerous than Ruiz.
Jones has gone on record saying he is more motivated to take on Antonio Tarver in November, as that fight is ‘unfinished business†and would be ‘personalâ€.
He is indifferent to whether he fights Tarver at cruiser- or heavyweight division. Again, the deciding factor would be money.
Jones took ownership of the light-heavyweight division in 1996 when he won the vacant WBC title on a points decision over Mike McCallum. This was followed by 14 successful world title defences. All in all, this phenomenal athlete has featured in 23 world title fights, of which he has won all but one.
He is by far the more skilled and experienced fighter, but Sanders has the speed and ability to outwit him and to knock him out. This, perhaps more than anything else, could be the motive for the sudden change of heart in the Jones camp about facing the South African.
After Sanders’s convincing ousting of Klitschko — regarded as being the heir apparent to Lennox Lewis for universal heavyweight champion title — there is currently no credible boxing heavyweight champion other than the South African, including Lewis.
Meanwhile, buckling under pressure from the WBO, Sanders has agreed to defend against Brewster.
The Jones bout would be ideal, but whether Jones has the balls to climb into the ring with a real heavyweight like Sanders is questionable.
It’s seldom a boxer accepts a fight he could lose unless he has to, and Jones doesn’t have to do anything.