by Mesuli Zifo

SOUTH African forgotten former heavyweight world champion Corrie Sanders is backing Vitali Klitschko to beat Tomasz Adamek when they clash for the WBC heavyweight title at Stadion Miejski, Wroclaw in Poland on Saturday.

Sanders suffered a brutal eight rounds stoppage defeat to Klitschko for the very same WBC crown way back on April 2004 after giving the giant Ukrainian anxious moments in the first round.

However his poor conditioning worsened by his penchant for golf rather than taking boxing seriously began to tell as the fight progressed as he ran out of steam, allowing the patient Vitali to rally back and administer a frightful beat-down en route to the eighth round stoppage.

Sanders had previously shocked the world by knocking out Vitali’s younger brother Wladimir in two rounds to annex his WBO title in March 2003 when the baby brother was considered the heir-apparent of the division.

Now having retired from the ring, Sanders is still keeping a keen interest in the developments at the depleted heavyweight division dominated by both Klitschko brothers.

He is one of the numerous pundits who feel that Vitali will just be too big and too strong for the Polish who will be attempting to win his third divisional world title after triumphing in the light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions.

“I think Vitali will be too strong for Adamek who at best is still a light heavyweight fighter,” Sanders said.

However Sanders is renowned for getting his predictions wrong, and that adds to some sort of intrigue to Saturday’s fight.

In 2001 Sanders encouraged people to bet with their houses that Lennox Lewis would easily knock out Hasim Rahman in their heavyweight title clash at Carnival City, in South Africa.

Rahman had interestingly earned the shot at Lewis after stopping Sanders in seven rounds.

Despite the heavy odds stacked against him, Rahman knocked out Lewis in five rounds to cause the biggest upset of 2001 and left Sanders with an egg on his face.