In boxing its always good to beat the man who beat the man who beat … That way you keep moving forward and build on the reputations of those who have come before you.
In what could be perceived as a step in the wrong direction, South Africa’s newly crowned World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders is in the process of being matched in a unification bout against the International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion, Chris Byrd.
Byrd, nicknamed ”Rapid Fire”, is a previous holder of the WBO crown but was himself dethroned by the man Sanders demolished to win the title, Wladimir Klitschko.
Like Klitschko, Byrd is one of the fighters Lennox Lewis is too afraid to face. Lewis relinquished the IBF crown rather than defend against Byrd, a man regarded as the best scientific boxer in the heavyweight division.
By all appearances the association between Lewis’s management team Lion Promotions and Sanders’s promoters Golden Gloves, is being used to protect Lewis by letting Sanders eliminate those boxers whom Lewis doesn’t want to face.
Given that the Sanders vs Byrd fight will be a unification bout it will carry a fair amount of weight, but it would have been a far better and bigger affair, however, if Sanders was matched with Lewis himself or Mike Tyson. Not only would those bouts carry with them more public appeal than the Byrd fight will, but given Sanders style and ability he would also have a greater chance at beating Lewis or Tyson than he will Byrd.
Lewis, Tyson and Klitschko are all cumbersome when it comes to blocking a fast straight jab to the face. Given their sizes and builds, closing up is not something they can do quick enough to block Sander’s swift blows. Following the same strategy he did against Klitschko, Sanders could stop both Lewis and Tyson.
Byrd, however, is another kettle of fish. The man is elusive and difficult to hit. Like Sanders, he’s also a southpaw and knows his way around the ring. He out-boxed Evander Holyfield in December to win the IBF title and prior to that he took David Tua and Vitali Klitschko to school.
Byrd’s biggest disability is his size and reach. He stands 1,88m and has a 185cm reach as opposed to Sanders 1,93m and 196cm reach. It was Sanders’s reach, along with his speed, that was a telling factor in his felling of Klitschko.
Although beating Byrd would give Sanders a second crown and place him one step closer to being regarded as the universal heavyweight champion, it will not give him the profile a win over Lewis or Tyson would. In a sport where a promoter’s negotiation skills play a bigger role than a boxer’s abilities, however, a Byrd in the ring is better than any amount of Lewises outside of it.
In local action, fight fans are in for what should be a thunderous middle-weight national title fight on Friday night at the Graceland casino in Secunda. Anthony van Niekerk will be making the second defense of his title against former IBO middleweight world champion Mpush Makambi.
Van Niekerk, a fireman by trade, is one of the bravest and toughest combatants currently active and will need to dig deep if he is to retain his title against Makambi.
Makambi, a former mercenary, is a skilled boxer who possesses tremendous firepower in both hands. The two faced each other in a non-title fight two years ago. Makambi on that occasion dropped Van Niekerk three times in the opening round to win the encounter. ”This time it won’t be so easy,” says Van Niekerk.