R.I.P Gerrie Coetzee

Another member of the boxing fraternity passes R I P Champ

 

Rest in Peace. Condolences to his family.

 

Go easy, Gerrie........not that many top 80's heavies left, really.

 

RIP Champ.......

 

The WBC at the time was not giving South Africans title shots because of Don King's influence there.

From a moral standpoint purely, the WBC was right. But many South African boxers who were good could not prove themselves. And, boxing is corrupt.

Snipes got the title shot next instead.

 

Gerrie had an outstanding amateur career and was noted as a boxer rather than a puncher on his way up. He idolized Muhammad Ali. See his win over countryman Kallie Knoetze and you can see him as a fleet-footed boxer with pretty good hand speed and nice combinations.

Later after multiple breaks of his right hand, a doctor fused the bones in his wrist into basically one solid bone and created his ‘bionic’ right hand.

Coetzee may have benefitted from South African money influence getting him multiple title shots (he lost to Tate and then Weaver but still got another) but he was persistent and fought the fights needed to fight (winning most of them) to stay in the hunt and keep pursuing the championship. He finally came through to win it and lost it under bad circumstances in a 4-minute round (in his home country no less) and never got a rematch.

The Boksburg Bomber always seemed one punch away from winning any fight, and picked himself after defeat to get back in the game. He was in a lot of exciting scraps and fought many of the top guys of his day.

He will be missed. #RIP.

EDIT: Gerrie was diagnosed with lung cancer a week ago. It was a sudden end.

He leaves behind wife Rina, three children and seven grandchildren.

A biopic on his life is to wrap filming soon, apparently. I gather it is a South African production but hopefully it will be available worldwide.

 

So sad to hear. He was a great competitor and champion. RIP Gerrie Coetzee.

 

Rest in heaven Gerrie.

Man I was watching one of his fights the other night!

 

I have to correct you on this one Bill.

There was actually a downpour prior to the main event and there were still wet/slippery patches. From memory the ring was also of the resin covered variety making it worse. This was well documented at the time.

 

Please explain! Would love to hear your input about the guy!!

 

Watch the fight and I think you have to agree that his tactics were unsporting, to say the least.

He held in a way that would make Henry Akinwande blush. He even at one point tied Weaver up and then did a running start trying to send Weaver over the top rope, ass over teakettle. I believe he also threw a lot of rabbit punches, but I’d have to look again on that part.

South African referee Stanley Christodoulou watched all of this without taking a point away and I don’t even remember a stern warning.

You didn’t see Weaver doing the same things.

All that said, it was one fight. Coetzee was a credit to the game. RIP.

 

Tate though, a much bigger man, and unaccustomed to fighting on canvas exposed to the elements had much better footing throughout the fight, only slipping once. Whereas Coetzee slipped probably six times. That makes absolutely no sense.

 

I'm only talking about the Tate fight, not Weaver. The claim Coetzee was repeatedly slipping on purpose.

 

Small things can make big differences even down to shoes. Coetzee was also the "puncher", the guy who put more force on the canvas.

 

Rip Coetzee. Good fighter. Arguably a top 10 heavyweight for the decade. Wins over Leon Spinks (right after his two bouts with Ali), Dokes and Tillis. Draw with Thomas that he could of won and an outright robbery vs Snipes. That was a legit bad decision.
Not a bad career at all. Fought lot of top guys like Tate, Weaver, Page In losing efforts. Very deep resume for first half of decade and deserved a shot at Holmes.