Apartheid-Era South African Heavyweights

Knoetze, Shutte, Abbott, du Plooy, Coetzer, Botha... all decent.

Sanders had the stuff to be exceptional, an excellent athlete (ran a 10.8 100 meters as a junior)... but lacking the mental game in a big way.

Tshabalala breaks the heavyweight "privileged" mold if by privileged you mean white. However, there were plenty of world class examples below heavyweight of non-white fighters excelling, so I don't if the missed opportunities arguments holds much water. It's not like the truly fortunate of any other country are the ones to excel in boxing. It's always the most downtrodden who end up in the gyms and with the belts.

 

I am South African and lived most my youth and young adulthood through Apartheid.


The boxing here was for all races, but the whites obviously got the privleges. The blacks never succeeded in boxing that much until after Apartheid ended (1990).

Nelson Mandela was a boxer himself and is an avid fan of the sport (even though he's a ****ing terrorist..trying to bomb the whites during Apartheid).

 

going by their names I believe most of the white S.African heavyweights decend from the boer's, the dutch population who were prety tough by all acounts. Their ancesters had to be prety tough to make a life and farm in the bush and then fight the british when they came. I can only asume they were simular to the pioneer farming stock who dominated boxing in the wild west days of america in the 1900's.

 

yes they were tough, they certainly think they are, but its not exclusive to the ausies, american pioneers or the boers of who the toughest white people are. I dont think transplanted europeans are any tougher than their relations who stayed in europe. just as transplanted africans wont be any tougher than their relations still in africa.

The question was why south africa, why did they produce so many good heavyweights? Regardless of what economic class they came from I think the answer is that there was enough tough fighters from tough stock of the same size to compeate with each other to produce enough good big ones.

The dutch are a prety big race anyway and they thrived on the farms, food and climate there.

Boxing in europe historicaly is almost exclusivly a working class sport. Until recently the children of the working classes have been smaller than upper class children with smaller familys and beter food. white europeans until recently produce more midleweight sized men from working classes than anything else but white south afrcans have always been bigger on average. They just produce more big men.

 

Just some theories .....

Racialist police state regimes have an interest in encouraging boxing among their own 'superior' ruling race. Boxing is great propaganda, and affirmation of the 'noble' warrior spirit among a people. Even if your guy loses, he will gain respect as a man providing he puts up a good fight.
Also, in a militaristic police state you need men of a martial disposition.
Adolf Hitler attached great importance to having boys and young men take part in boxing.

Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa may have sucked but they did support grassroots boxing.

Boxing was always popular in South Africa, before the apartheid era. The regime just cranked in up a little notch, at the very same time as white participation in western democracies was on the decline.

Also, from the 1960s onwards South African athletes and teams were being banned or boycotted for political reasons. Professional boxing was one of the few sports, where due to it's informal and chaotic (and seedy) structure, could allow boxers and promoters to easily circumnavigate any difficulties and ascend to the world stage, almost under the radar. Boxers are free agents, not as the mercy of team selectors, and governing bodies are inconsistent and numerous. Pro boxing began to thrive even more in South Africa at the time when the boycott in international sports was at its height.

 

:good
great post, that’s a good theory. During apartheid with the absence of participation in universal sporting events boxing was drawing huge crowds in sun city because profesional boxing was the one sport where south Africa was competing internationally. boxing would have appeared glamorous at this time to white kids taking up sport since it was the only sport where a south African could make it on an international scale, without changing nationality like zola bud.

dUring that time i imagine boxing was posibly the closest thing to a "national sport" apartheid south africa had. They were banned from everything else.

 

BS. Yes, he bombed. Targets where no humans would get wounded and only after they didn´t see any other way of fighting an oppressive regime that actually killed people.

 

Who can forget the Bionic Right Hand of Gerry Coetzee?...the doc used a welding torch to fuse together his right hand bones into a club.

 

Another question is why, post-Apartheid, have there been numerous championship level Black fighters from SA, but no heavies. Meanwhie, Sanders, Coetzer and Botha did well for themselves.

And lastly, heavyweight boxing seems dead in SA now. Botha is still the best HW there at a very shot 42 and according to boxrec, there are only 21 active heavies in the country. Perhaps DT can enlighten us.

 

There was strong Big Dutch Heavyweights out of South Africa and they dominated the continent. I think they could have had a better chance with earlier training and good coaches...When Jackie McCoy got Coetzee he improved him (left hook) Kallie Knoetzee had power but did not develop stamina..Sanders had fast hands and could punch but was not dedicated to the sport...but I ALWAYS FELT HE WAS DANGEROUS BUT AVOIDED...COETZEE had a serious right hand decent speed, he beat Snipes(dropped him 2 times) but Snipes got the title shot....also KO'd Spinks in 1 rd. and KO'd Dokes for the title...another dangerous and avoided guy

 

a few white people I know who left SA told me the Blacks are now slaughtering the whites, raping the woman and killing them and it is acually worse than it was racially during apartheid but the American press keeps it under raps...Is there truth to this....The Dutch were a strong presence in SA, hard to see them defenseless

 

Fat Jimmy Abbott,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6'5" 280 lbs.

Really named 'JUMBO'
Was all the rage for awhile...
KO'd Kallie Knoetzee in (KO1)1980

Was in-line for the WBA Title shot too,,,,but ate his way out if it by
getting to 305 lbs.

 

bodhi.. you aren't even South African and don't kow the history of the country so why you arguing?