LOS ANGELES, 26 April 2004 — Vitali Klitschko avenged his brother’s devastating loss to Corrie Sanders, by stopping the South African in the eighth round on Saturday and capturing the World Boxing Council heavyweight title.
Klitschko also established himself as a legitimate heavyweight champ and the heir apparent to Englishman Lennox Lewis who vacated the title two months ago when he announced his retirement.
“It was important to beat Corrie Sanders because if Sanders had beat me it would have been a big disaster for the Klitschko brothers,” Vitali said.
“My brother is a big part of this belt. We split our wins together and we split our losses.” Referee Jon Schorle stepped between the two and stopped the fight at two minutes, 46 seconds of the eighth round of their scheduled 12-rounder with Klitschko swarming a helpless Sanders.
Except for the first few rounds, Vitali never really looked in danger of losing to Sanders, who appeared overweight and ran out of gas quickly. With the victory, Klitschko improved to 34-2, with 33 wins inside the distance and collected the WBC title vacated by Lewis.
Vitali was returning to the scene of a heartbreak loss to Lewis in the sixth round last June when the bout was stopped because of a nasty cut near Klitschko’s left eye with the Ukrainian leading on points.
Lewis, who was at ringside and cheering Sanders on, went to Klitschko’s dressing room to congratulate the 32-year-old Ukrainian after the fight. Vitali, who suffered a swollen left eye against Sanders, said he tried to convince Lewis to come out of retirement. If he can’t get another fight with Lewis, Vitali said he wants to fight Mike Tyson. Regardless, he plans to take a couple months off before deciding whom to fight next. Vitali dominated the Sanders fight from the third round on, bloodying Sanders’ nose and opening up cuts near his left eye and ear. Vitali worked his jab effectively and despite talk of Sanders’ speed, he continually beat Sanders to the punch.
Sanders, who dropped to 39-3, with 29 knockouts, got the better of Klitschko in the first round and appeared to knock Vitali down with a left but Schorle ruled it a slip.
