Heavyweight hope: Tomorrow night is the first step in Corrie’s climb to the top
BOXING: Gavin Evans
FOR a boxer whose last fight but one saw him in the prone position, Cornelius Johannes Sanders sure is a lucky fellow.
The former Northern Transvaal B centre has been all but guaranteed a shot at Michael Moorer’s two- thirds share of the world heavyweight title in March — provided both of these southpaws are still standing, so to speak, by that date.
That, at least, is the word from Sanders’ promoters Rodney Berman and Cedric Kuchner, who have struck a deal with Moorer’s manager John Davimos and his promoter Dan Duva. But both teams know that over the next six months anything can go wrong with their shaky chinned proteges, so the contract signing will have to wait until after November 5 when Moorer takes on 46-year-old George Foreman and Sanders tangles with fringe contender Alex Stewart.
Meanwhile, however, Sanders has to overcome the awkward obstacle of Garing Lane in tomorrow night’s main undercard fight of the far more substantial encounter between the “other” heavyweight king, Lennox Lewis, and his number one contender Oliver McCall.
For those who have lost track of the comings and goings of the sport’s premier division — surely 99 percent of the planet’s population — the Englishman Lewis holds the WBC title while the American Moorer holds the IBF and WBA versions. Though inferior in ability, Moorer’s widely recognised as the champion by “right”, having been the man who beat the man, who beat the man.
Meanwhile Lewis goes on to the richest fight in the history of boxing, against former world champion Riddick Bowe in March, which will net him a cool R100-million in purse money alone provided he gets by the ferocious McCall. And if he gets past those two he goes on to a title unification match with Moorer, provided Moorer overcomes the aged Foreman and the iffy Sanders. It’s all quite convoluted, but what it means is that tomorrow night’s encounter is a major one by Corrie’s cautious standards.
Lane (31) who has been Lewis’ chief sparring partner, might not seem too formidable a proposition when one looks at his girth and his record — 12 wins (six knockouts), 11 losses, one draw — but he’s shown in the past he can be dangerous, and he appears to be more motivated and in better shape than before.
He caused a minor shock last year by flattening former contender Alex Garcia in two rounds, and also managed a points win over Craig Payne and a six round stoppage over perennial punchbag Jack Jackson in his last outing. His only losses in the past two years have been to former world champion Larry Holmes who outpointed him in a 10 rounder and young prospect Jeremy Williams who stopped him in 12 — both credible performances. In fact, most of the blemishes on his record have come from top drawer opposition — Riddick Bowe (twice), Ray Mercer, Trevor Berbick, Renaldo Snipes, to name a few.
He’s a 1.79m, 122kg barrel of muscle and lard, who can whack a bit, maul a bit and has a good chin — which is why Lewis, Bowe and Mike Tyson have chosen him as a sparring partner. Lane is seeing the Sanders fight as a short cut to the big league.
“Corrie Sanders? I don’t know a whole lot about him. They say he’s a southpaw and he’s fast, but I hear he got kayoed by Nate Tubbs, so maybe I’ll catch him too,” he said with his laconic, sparring partner grin.
Before coming up against Tubbs on May 21, Sanders was showing every sign of being South Africa’s finest heavyweight since Gerrie Coetzee’s heyday over a decade ago.
He was rated in the top 10 by all three international controlling bodies, had racked up 23 straight wins and looked sure to get a title shot within a year.
Tubbs, also a former Tyson sparring partner, was brought as a substitute when the South African boxing commission turned down former world cruiserweight champion Carlos de Leon because he was over 35 years old. Given his size (119kg) and his impressive 93 percent knockout record, the huge American should have been taken seriously, but instead Sanders came in over four kilograms overweight and disdainfully cocky.
In the second round he was caught on the ropes and poleaxed with a huge one-two which put him belly up for the count.
Under normal circumstances that would have been that for Corrie, but his backers quickly put him back into action (by stopping De Leon in one round on the Bowe-Mathis undercard) and then began negotiating with Moorer’s gun-shy backers.
Sanders, who arrived in London on Monday, says the Tubbs result was just one of those things, and still insists he has the stuff to take Moorer out.
“I don’t think that loss has affected my confidence. I’m not making any excuses, but he just got me on a bad night and he got lucky. A lot of great heavyweights have come back from knockouts to win the world title.
“I’d love to fight Tubbs again, to prove who’s best, but at the moment it’s a win that would mean nothing. My programme is first Lane, then Stewart and then Moorer in March, and, yes, I honestly think I can win the world title.”
He says he wants to make a good impression against Lane, but he’s not planning on taking any chances.
“All I know of him is that he’s been in with the best in the world and that he’s short, bulky and strong. My sole concern is to be a winner on Saturday night. So I’m not making any predictions or anything, but I’d like to look good in front of such a huge audience.”
The 1,94m, 121kg South African champion will probably be too quick and clever for the slow- moving Lane, but it will not be a walkover and he may well have to travel the distance.
Lewis has a tougher assignment against an opponent rated number one by all three bodies (albeit partly by virtue of his ties with Don King, who, incidentally, is currently on trial in Nevada for large scale insurance fraud — one of scores of criminal charges the federal authorities could have brought against him).
Among King’s considerable, though dubious, assets is that he currently seems to “own” the key players in the WBC, WBA and IBF, which means each of them have dutifully installed King-promoted fighter in the top five positions in their rankings. In fact Lewis, Bowe, Moorer, Stewart and Sanders are just about the only leading heavies not tied up by the Don.
King’s scheming determination to uncrown him, is just one of several reasons why, in his laid back way, Lewis shows considerable antagonism at the competing groups of Americans who control the sport, and their various accolytes in the media.
“I’m the only leading heavyweight out there who is still unbeaten. I’m coming up for my fourth world title defence, while the other title has changed hands three times in that period — if I was an American they’d be falling all over me. They just cannot stomach the idea that a non-American is the best fighter in the world. Yet King tried to buy me, and when that failed manoeuvred to get his fighters installed as mandatory contenders and Moorer and before that Bowe, have run scared. I suppose only when I’ve knocked out McCall, Bowe, Moorer and Tyson, will they take me seriously, and then they’ll find some other countryman of theirs who they’ll say I haven’t proved myself against.”
It was a rare burst of antipathy from a fighter who is marked from the rest of the pack by his calm, accent, good looks, chess playing prowess and undoubted intelligence, as much as by his size, power and skills.
But he’s up against a live one in Oliver McCall. As yet another former Tyson sparring partner, “The Atomic Bull” dropped Iron Mike and roughed him up a few times, and has also held good wins over former WBO world champion Francesco Damiani and two current contenders Lionel Butler and Bruce Seldon. His is a so-so 24 wins (17 knockouts) and five losses, but over the past four years he’s only lost one, disputed decision, against his current sparring partner, and former IBF champion Tony Tucker. He’s rough, tough, hits hard and is in the best shape of his career.
But in Lewis he’s facing a man with more natural talent than any other heavyweight out there, Tyson included, and at an athletic looking 1.96m, 106kg, he’s one of the biggest. It should be enough to get the Englishman through, but it may not be easy.
My bet is that Lewis hands McCall his first inside- the-distance defeat — about eight rounds should do it, and goes on to whip Bowe, Moorer and, yes, Tyson himself. That last fight should earn him over R200-million — enough to retire on I think.