Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders (42-3, 31 KOs) returns to the ring after after a nine-month lay off when he goes up against South African Osborne Machimana (14-5-1, 10 KOs) on February 2nd at the Emperor’s Palace, in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. Sanders, now 42, figures to take out Machina, 29, in the first couple of rounds.
Machimana has faced only limited competition in his career, and the few times that he’s stepped up against decent B-level fighters, such as Shane Cameron, Albert Sosnowski and Livin Castillo, he’s been beaten handily. Machimana would do well to try his best to stay away from Sanders as much as possible, because if he gets hit by him it’s all over.
According to the website Sowetan, Sanders hopes to fight one of the Klitschko brothers in the future, saying “I’m offended that I have to lower my standards and fight a South African fighter when my thoughts are focused on a return match with one of the Klitschko brothers.”
At this point, that would be a rather long shot, for neither of the Klitschko brothers have mentioned Sanders as an opponent recently. Vitali is having enough problems just making it into the ring without injuring himself, much less being able to take on an aging knockout artist like Sanders.
As for Wladimir, I have seriously doubt that he’d ever consider fighting him again, because Sanders, no matter old he is, would be a dangerous opponent for him due to his tremendous power in his left hand. It would be a case of Wladimir being the better fighter, but no able to take a round or two of hard shots from Sanders. In order to beat Sanders, you have to have a good enough chin to take a handful of monstrous shots from him, otherwise you’re in deep trouble.
Sanders, a South African, is noted for his quick hands, southpaw stance and his incredible power in his left hand. He has KO wins over Wladimir Klitschko, whom he destroyed in three brutal rounds in March 2003, Michael Sprott, and Bobby Czyz. Unfortunately, his stamina was never the greatest, which plagued him in knockout losses to Hasim Rahman and Vitali Klitschko.
After defeating Wladimir in 2003, Sanders gave up the WBO belt rather than defend, instead opting to fight a big-money bout with Vitali Klitschko, which he lost by 8th round TKO. Shortly after that, Sanders injured his back while training, and subsequently retired for two years. On November 24th 2006, Sanders came back from retirement and flattened Owen Wilson in the 2nd round. Sanders would fight once more, defeating Daniel Bispo by a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision on May 12th, 2007, a bout in which Sanders injured his left hand in the 1st round. Despite the injury, Sanders won ever round of the fight using only his right hand.
Now with his left hand completely healed, Sanders hopes to line up a bout with a big-name fighter, preferably one of the Klitschko brothers. It remains to be seen whether one of them will be interested. Certainly Wladimir has some demons that he’d like to erase by facing and defeating Sanders. However, due to the one-sided nature of the fight, it would be risky thing for Wladimir to under take. That said, Wladimir did fight a rematch with Lamon Brewster last year, another fighter that knocked Wladimir. Based on what I saw of Brewster, Sanders couldn’t do any worse despite the five years that have elapsed since stopping Wladimir.