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| Sande battles Colorado's undefeated Earl "The New Generation" Jackson |
After winning the bronze medal at the 1988 olympic games Kenya native Chris Sande moved to the United States and began hir professional boxing career.
October 10, 1989 was the night of his first pro fight which he won via 4 round unanimous decision over John Tunstall at Bally's in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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| Sande battles James Patterson. |
After 3 more wins, Sande at 4-0 was pitted against another unbeaten prospect in 5-0 Willie Kemp of New York. It was a good fight that ended in a split decision win for Sande, that win moved his record to 5-0.
Two more nice wins for Sande (7-0) found him in another face-off with a fellow undefeated prospect. This time it was South Carolina's Lamar "Kidfire" Parks who was 9-0 with 8 by knockout. It was a very interesting battle, but the pure power of Parks was too much and Sande tasted his first professional defeat via 5th round technical knockout.
Chris bounced back with a pair of wins over solid competition in Steve Langley, and Roger Orlaineta, both by unanimous decisions. At 9-1, Sande again found his self matched against a highly regarded prospect, this time it was against New Mexico's Daniel "Pit Bull" Perez (6-1) in Perez's hometown of Albuquerque. It was another good contest, but when the scorecards were read, it was Perez taking the unanimous decision on scores of 59-55, and 58-56 x 2.
The former Olympian was now 9-2, but his management still felt they had a potential champion and he was put in with fellow fringe prospects as he continued his campaign in the middleweight division.
He ran off a 4-fight win streak against fighters with a combined record of 27-5-4, including Sonny Brennan (9-1), and Colorado's Earl Jackson (7-0-2).
With a shiny record of 13-2, Chris Sande was put in against another toughie when he faced off with Marvin Hagler look-a-like - Warren Williams out of Houston, Texas. Sande dropped a close but unanimous decision over 8 rounds on scores of 76-74 x 2, and 77-73. Williams would go on to win the NABF Supermiddleweight title.
Sande came back with a fight that ended in a "No Decision" in the first round against James Rivas, and then a month-and-a-half later came back with a convincing decision win against Rivas.
Chris campaigned on, and this is where his career started to decline. It was streaky from here on out. After a win over Otis Pimpleton (4-4-2), he dropped a decision to undefeated Rodney Toney, and then traveled to Wales for his first shot at a title belt.
Sande took his 15-4 record into the ring to challenge local favorite, and champion Nicky Piper (17-2-1) for his WBA Penta-Continental Supermiddleweight title. It was the champion's night as he stopped Sande in the 9th round in front of a roaring local crowd.
As he had done in the past, Chris bounced back with a string of 3 knockout wins, before being stopped his self by Long Beach, California's Ray McElroy (17-3) in round 4 of a bout set for 8 rounds at the Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After a 4 round loss to popular Art Serwano, Sande scored a very hard fought 6-round majority decision win over Clarence White (15-5) in Lake Tahoe, NV. It was thought to be a big win for Chris, but as it turned out, this would be his final victory inside the ropes.
Chris Sande fought on for 7 more years, but went 0-12-2 in those years, with his final fight coming on July 6, 2001 losing via 4th round tko to local favorite Alejandro Garcia (13-0) in Tijuana, B.C. Mexico.
Sande's 12 year run saw him finish with a final tally of 19 wins, 19 losses, and 2 draws. The once promising former Olympian was always a warrior, and even on the downside of his career, he was considered worthy of testing up-and-coming young prospects.
Chris's name is still associated with high quality boxing, and fans around the world fondly remember the ring days of "Binwa" - Chris Sande.
Check out:
CHRIS SANDE'S COMPLETE PRO LEDGER ON BOXREC.COM
CHRIS SANDE vs EARL JACKSON (on YouTube)
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