{"id":1948,"date":"2012-09-24T11:25:53","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T11:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2012-09-24T11:31:20","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T11:31:20","slug":"corrie-sanderss-death-like-something-out-of-a-wild-west-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=1948","title":{"rendered":"Corrie Sanders’s death: ‘like something out of a wild west movie’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Boxing trainer Harold Volbrecht says he was shocked to hear of the sudden death of his close friend Corrie Sanders.<\/p>\n

Volbrecht, who trained Sanders for the first 14-years of the heavyweight champion’s professional career, said on Monday they had a shared a close relationship.<\/p>\n

Sanders, 46, was killed during a robbery at a restaurant in Brits, North West, on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

“I took over as his trainer for his first professional fight [against King Kong Dyubele in April 1989],” Volbrecht said.<\/p>\n

“I flew to Cape Town, where Corrie stayed at the time, to watch the fight, and I brought him back with me [to Benoni] afterwards.<\/p>\n

“He stayed with me and my family until he got married. He was like a son to me.”<\/p>\n

Volbrecht said he had been fortunate to train some of the country’s most prized pugilists, including former IBF lightweight title holder Philip Holiday, and IBF and WBA super-featherweight champion Brian Mitchell, but he was closer to Sanders than any of the other fighters under his tutelage.<\/p>\n

“Corrie was different because he stayed in my house,” Volbrecht said.<\/p>\n

“We were much closer because I gave him daily advice. We had a very good relationship.”<\/p>\n

Sanders beat Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko in a second-round technical knockout in Hannover, Germany, to win the WBO heavyweight title in March 2003.<\/p>\n

The following year he held Klitschko’s older brother Vitali for eight rounds before the fight was stopped in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n

He retired in February 2008, after 46 professional fights, with 42 wins (31 of them by knockout) and only four defeats.<\/p>\n

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“He was a brilliant all-round sportsman,” Volbrecht said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people assume, because he was a big guy, that he had a powerful punch, but he was not a powerful guy who picked up heavy weights.<\/p>\n

“His hand speed and accuracy made him so effective.<\/p>\n

“Muscle means nothing in boxing, and Corrie knew that. He understood the techniques of the sport.”<\/p>\n

Volbrecht said Sanders, a keen golfer, had hoped to turn professional and wanted to play on the Champions Tour after he turned 50.<\/p>\n

“It was his dream to play on the seniors tour as a professional golfer,” Volbrecht said.<\/p>\n

“He had another four years to wait, but he was a brilliant golfer because he hit the ball so far.”<\/p>\n

Volbrecht had been stunned to hear of Sanders’ death on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

“How does somebody walk into a restaurant while people are eating and just start shooting? It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe it. It’s so senseless, like something out of a wild west movie.” – Sapa<\/p>\n

Also read:<\/p>\n

Former world-champion boxer Corrie Sanders refused medical treatment in South Africa<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boxing trainer Harold Volbrecht says he was shocked to hear of the sudden death of his close friend Corrie Sanders. Volbrecht, who trained Sanders for the first 14-years of the heavyweight champion’s professional career, said on Monday they had a shared a close relationship. Sanders, 46, was killed during a robbery at a restaurant in … Continue reading “Corrie Sanders’s death: ‘like something out of a wild west movie’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[782,1295],"tags":[1291,1289,34,1316,1317,40,606,12250],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-in-depth-coverage","tag-brits","tag-corrie-sanders","tag-crime","tag-former-world-champion-boxer","tag-harold-volbrecht","tag-murder","tag-shooting","tag-south-africa"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/BoxingGloves.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}