By Fritz Drexel: Undefeated German heavyweight prospect Steffen Kretschmann (10-0, 9 KOs) won an easy eight-round unanimous decision over American journeyman Corey Sanders (23-12, 15 KOs) on Friday night at the Estrel Convention Center, Neukoelln, in Berlin, Germany. Kretschmann, 27, considered one of the best heavyweight boxing prospects coming out of Germany, won every round of the fight, as he controlled the action with a fast jab and a powerful straight left hand against the 32-year old Sanders. For his part, Sanders came into the bout weighing 358 lbs, and looking to be in poor shape. Normally weighing in for most of his bouts around 290 to 300, the added weight badly slowed Sanders down, so much that he was rarely able to land a punch because of the slowness of his delivery.
The southpaw Kretschmann tattooed Sanders in the first four rounds of the right with jabs, straight left hands and right hooks, keeping him busy absorbing a great deal of punishments. Sanders spent much of the time talking to Kretschmann as if he were a pupil, nodding approval when the German would land a particularly hard shot and invite him in close to land freely. For this reason, it seemed as if Kretschmann was hesitant to let his hands go, almost as if he felt sorry for Sanders and wanted to go easy on him. The only real offense that Sanders could offer up was a few shots while holding onto Kretschmann, but they were mostly half-hearted like something a sparring partner would do to champion.
In rounds seven and eight, Sanders actually landed a couple of good right hands and showing that he still has good power underneath all that blubber. However, he was unable to repeat the shots as Kretschmann carefully moved out of range. By this time, Kretschmann was mostly playing with Sanders, hitting him only with great reluctance and even then, not very hard.