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Klitschko stops Sanders
25/04/2004 07:09 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Vitali Klitschko both staked his claim to the heavyweight title and avenged his brother's defeat on Saturday in a dominating performance that left Corrie Sanders battered and bloodied and unable to fight back in the eighth round.
Klitschko showed that he belonged among the heavyweight elite, winning the WBC title vacated by the retirement of Lennox Lewis when referee John Schorle stopped the fight at 1:46 of the eighth round with Sanders helpless along the ropes.
Klitschko landed his jab early and often and was sharp with almost all his punches, while Sanders grew increasingly desperate to land a big right hand to try and stem the onslaught.
The fight came to an end after Klitschko landed a big left-right and then backed Sanders up with a flurry of punches. Schorle kept watching to see if Sanders would respond, but when he didn't punch back he wrapped his arms around Sanders and called the fight to an end.
Vitali Klitschko landed more than half of his punches - 230 of them by ringside count - to only 51 by Sanders. The only suspense after the early rounds was whether Sanders would land one big left hand to turn the fight around, and he couldn't.
"I was surprised he never went down. He took so many punches," Klitschko said. "Unbelievable. I was surprised."
Sanders was bleeding badly from the nose and around the mouth, and his face was marked and swollen by the time the fight ended.
Klitschko was a 3-1 favourite, but there were many questions still to be answered about the 6-foot-7 heavyweight even after he went six strong rounds in the same ring with Lewis last year before being stopped on cuts.
He answered most of them in a fight that had the crowd of 17 320 standing and cheering much of the way.
"This was a big relief," Klitschko (33-1, 32 knockouts) said. "I feel a lot of weight off my shoulders."
Sanders left the ring without comment, and his manager said he was taken to a hospital for treatment of an injury to his left ear.
"He was exhausted, he was tired," Vernon Smith said. "He did not disagree with the referee's decision to stop the fight. His biggest regret is he couldn't land his left better."
Klitschko came out cautious, perhaps mindful of what Sanders did to his brother, Wladimir, when he knocked him out in the second round 13 months earlier. Sanders, meanwhile, went right after Klitschko and caught him with 20 seconds left in the round with a big left hand that sent Klitschko back across the ring into the ropes.
The fight was fought in flurries, with periods of little action followed by both fighters trading punches at will. Sanders (39-3) often tried to lure Klitschko into a corner or onto the ropes, where he would launch a left hand counterpunch.
By the fifth round, Klitschko was controlling the fight with his jab and, suddenly, late in the round, landed three straight right hands that sent Sanders staggering backward. Klitschko went after him and landed a flurry and Sanders was nearly out on his feet as the bell sounded to end the round.
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