Wladimir Klitschko - Corrie Sanders

On April 1, 2000 in Cologne (Germany), a duel took place between the current WBO world champion Vitali Klitschko and the American challenger for this title Chris Byrd ^[1] . The fight was held with the advantage of Vitaly, but because of a shoulder injury, he refused to continue after the 9th round. On October 14 of the same year, Bird came out on the first defense of the title against his younger brother Vitali - Wladimir Klitschko . The match ended in victory for Klitschko Jr. by unanimous referee’s decision ^[2] .

After defeating Chris Byrd, Vladimir Klitschko held five successful defenses of the championship title: on March 24, 2001, he defeated Derrick Jefferson (23-2-1) by technical knockout in the second round, and by technical knockout defeated Charles on August 4, 2001 Schifford (17-1), March 16, 2002 defeated François Botha (44-3-1) by technical knockout in the 10th round, Ray Mercer (30-4-1) by technical knockout in the 6th round on June 29, 2002 and on December 7 of that year in the 10th round he beat Jamil McCline (28-2-3) ^[3] .

For some time, Klitschko Jr. did not manage to find an opponent for the next title defense, since his convincing early victories over top heavy fighters scared his opponents, and they refused to fight with him. South African athlete Corrie Sanders was named a rival champion only a few weeks before the fight, and his portrait was not on the poster for the fight. At the time of the battle, Sanders was 37 years old, and he was not considered a serious opponent for Klitschko Jr. So, representatives of the American television channel HBO, believing that Klitschko Jr. could easily defeat Sandrs, planned to organize summer fights between Vladimir Klitschko and Kirk Johnson , and in the fall against David Tua ^[4] .

I know why then I lost to Sanders. By that time I had eaten these fights above the roof. I could not help fighting, because I had a contract, there was a promoter, but I remember how today: I went into the ring and thought about vacation. I thought: now I’ll put him in the first round - and rest. That is, the fight was lost even before I entered the ring. And with such an explosive fighter as Corrie Sanders, it was like death - I just flew into the scissors

- Vladimir Klitschko ^[4]

Sanders was considered an underdog (outsider) in a duel against Wladimir Klitschko. In different bookmakers, bets on his victory were accepted with a coefficient from 12 ^[5] to 40 ^[6] . Sports journalist Alexander Belenky wrote in his article about the upcoming match that Sanders' main achievement at that time was losing to former world champion Hasim Rahman , and the fight with Klitschko Jr. would be “another honorable loss” for him ^[5] .

Almost immediately after the start of the match, Corry Sanders tried to strike the left cross (strike counter), but the strike did not reach the target. According to sports journalist Alexander Belenky , it was at that moment that Corry saw a defect in defense against Wladimir Klitschko. A few seconds after this attack, Sanders inflicted an exact right jab (direct hit), the power of which was enhanced by the oncoming movement of Klitschko Jr. At the end of the first minute of the first round, the South African made another attempt to inflict a left jab, but Wladimir Klitschko laid his hand on the opponent’s hand, thereby foiling the Sanders attack. Then the round went more calmly, Vladimir Klitschko kept a long distance and kept his opponent on it, constantly throwing jabs. During this time, the Ukrainian athlete managed to carry out several unaccented strokes, which did not entail any consequences. At the end of the second minute, Vladimir Klitschko managed to hit Sanders with the right cross, but Corry Sanders immediately counterattacked, striking a powerful left-handed direct blow to the Ukrainian jaw, after which Klitschko Jr. began to try to clinch ^[8] .

Less than forty seconds before the end of the 1st round, Klitschko missed the left jab, and then the left hook (side impact) and was knocked down . After the resumption of the fight, Sanders threw out the left cross, which shocked Klitschko, and continued the attack with a series of punches that entailed the second fall of Vladimir. After Vladimir rose for the second time, 5 seconds were left until the end of the round, but Sanders managed to conduct several more accented attacks during this time ^[9] .

In the second round, Klitschko Jr. came out "tense and twisted." Sanders tried to make a few hits, and then, after 8 seconds after the start of the round, he again struck the left cross, after which Klitschko was for the third time in a fight on the floor of the ring. Less than thirty seconds after the start of the round, Sanders again went through the cross on the left, and his counterpart was knocked down for the fourth time, after which the referee stopped the match ^[10] .

Defeat from Sanders was the second in the professional career of Wladimir Klitschko. It became so unexpected that, summing up the results of the year, the American magazine “ The Ring ” awarded the appet of the year award to this fight ^[6] . According to experts in this sports discipline and Vladimir Klitschko himself, the main reason for the defeat was the underestimation of the opponent ^{[7] [12]} .

Klitschko Jr. spent his next fight on August 30 of the same year, knocking out Argentine Fabio Moli (29-2) in the 1st round, and defeated American Daniel Nicholson (42-4) by technical knockout on December 20 ^[13] .

After a landslide victory over Klitschko Jr., Corrie Sanders rose in world boxing rankings and became one of the main contenders for the WBC world title, which became vacant after Lennox Lewis announced his retirement. In order to fight for the WBC world title, Sanders renounced the WBO title. Rival Corri Sanders became the elder brother of Vladimir Vitali Klitschko . This fight, dubbed "Brother III’s Revenge", took place on April 24, 2004 in Los Angeles and ended with a victory of Klitschko Sr. by technical knockout in the 8th round ^[14] .

April 10, 2004 in Las Vegas, a fight took place between Wladimir Klitschko and American Laimon Brewster (33-3) for the vacant WBO world title. The fight was with the advantage of the Ukrainian athlete. In the third round, Klitschko knocked out his opponent. However, already in the 5th round, Klitschko began to get tired, which Brewster took advantage of and managed to return a knockdown to him. After this round ended, a referee became between the boxers, Vladimir caught on his leg and fell - by that time he was completely exhausted and could not get up. As a result, the victory by technical knockout in the 5th round was awarded to Brewster ^[15] .

On February 23, 2008 in New York , a duel took place between the world champion in IBF and IBO versions , Vladimir Klitschko, and the world champion in WBO versions, Sultan Ibragimov (22-0-1). Wladimir Klitschko dominated throughout the fight, working as jabs and disrupting the enemy’s attacks, while he paid great attention to defense, which deprived the fight of entertainment. Despite his fighting style, Wladimir Klitschko won a landslide victory by unanimous referee decision (119-110, 117-111 and 118-110) and again became the World Champion according to the WBO ^[16] .

• Belenky A.G. Golden Klitschko brothers. - M .: The secret of the company, 2006 .-- 224 p. - ISBN 5-98888-023-1 .