It was also interesting about being an amateur during Apartheid. I remember reading that Gerrie Coetzee was energized about the Leon Spinks fight because Leon was an Olympic Gold Medalist. Many amateur boxing experts in the early 70s felt Gerrie had a good shot to win a medal at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, but the world banned South Africa because of the Apartheid policies in 1970. And Gerrie, who wasn't racist like Knoetze, was deprived of his shot at a medal. So he saw the Spinks fight as his Olympic fight. And he just destroyed him. That lack of world amateur competition because the South African boxing teams were banned everywhere, in Coetzer's mind, seems to come up again when he said the South Americans were like pros compared to them and were so much better than the South African amateurs. Regardless, I always liked watching Pierre fight.
This. I have seen him mentioned a few times in the past years as being a big puncher, which he wasn't. In fact, he was on the feather-fisted side of the equation. He was always fit and tough and had a granite chin and will.
Pierre was a brave guy. You have to respect his effort and he was always in shape. That was a tough run of fight he had at the end. They didn’t take it easy on him. Bowe, Bruno and Foreman in back to back fights. Sheesh. Coetzer fought a very good version of Bowe. He did better than Dokes and Furguson. No wonder he talks him up. Maybe he could have rebuilt after the Bowe loss with easier fights? Frank Bruno and Danish heavyweight Brian Nielsen had the kind of backing that might have relaunched Coetzer. It’s a pity this wasn’t open to Pierre, because he was not that old then either.
I was at Bowe's training camp 3-4 times for the Ferguson fight. When I read about Bowe's power in this article, I thought about him sparring. I'm not sure, it was a long time ago, but I don't know if I ever saw a sparring session when Bowe didn't knock down his sparring partner. Bowe wasn't hard on them and didn't intentionally hurt them, but he would get a knock down against all/most of them. Thel Torrance, Eddie Futch, Mike McCallum, Bowe, Rock Newman were all there and couldn't have been nicer, relaxed atmosphere.
I think you are not only oblivious to factually self evident reality but you are obsessed by an anti Slavic passion.
Is what i say a lie? Do you not respect truth. I peddle truths , thats it! Klitschko is just one man and not representative of Slav. You sound just like the radical fuitcakes who always cry racism when they can't win an argument . Your thoughts on Bowe landing more jabs on Holyfield? I ask because you think WK had a better jab than Bowe. Stick to the topic
I'm not even sure what you are trying to assert by cherry picking two stats (not even sure which two fights you are discussing out of the five possibilities)... The variables that might cause such an anomaly are legion but I would only expect someone with a knowledge of the sport to understand this. And Bowe had a damn fine jab, too.
He was running out of time, because his eyes were starting to cut and swell very badly in fights. He could have picked some more capable fighters during his better years, and there was the feeling for a good long while that he was languishing, fighting the same class of opponent over and over, but not stepping up. So his handlers had to make a move.
Old Foreman would pulverize Sam Peter with his jab , but he had difficulty landing a jab on Holyfield. . Holyfield was a hard guy to land a jab on , Peters wasn't. This knowledge comes to mind when you utter your delusions of Wlads greatest and bestest jab ever. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AdvancedAdoredBug-size_restricted.gif
A journeyman/fringe contender like Coetzer reaches a point where it’s time to fish or cut bait. You’ve built yourself to a point where your record, ranking and skills are about as far as they’re going to go without world-class opposition. You’re however-many years old. And for the promoter, your record and status make it expensive to bring in opponents to further build you up ... and for what? To take the step up you’re already ready to take? Now it’s time to see if you can hang with the big boys. You solicit offers and take the best opportunity. Bowe was a WBA eliminator. If you win you fight for the title. You don’t belong in boxing if you turn it down. So he loses. What’s next? Line up some cans? To what end? No, you take two more fights against top guys and hope you break through. If you don’t, oh well, you’ve seen where your ceiling is. Now after those three fights, all losses, if you determine you want to continue maybe you take a step back (and down in competition) and win a few for less money and then you step up again. But he retired so he (wisely) wasn’t interested in that.
Manuel Clay De Almedia did have one hell of a chin I saw him v Gary Mason around 1989 - he took everything Mason threw at him and was coming on when he fell victim to a controversial british stoppage in round 7. Never seen that fight since. If anyone has put it on youtube please
It doesn't surprise me that Bowe got the Best Puncher slot. He delivered hell on Coetzer. I can't remember a guy eat so many flush, beautifully thrown uppercuts, like Coetzer did that night (and that was in less than 7 rounds).
