Coetzee was defintely known to be on the decline. Probably lost a lot of his ambition as soon as he won the title in 1983. It was his third shot at the title and he probably eased off and enjoyed it. The following year his fight with Holmes fell through, then he was defeated at the end of 1984 by Page. The only fight he had in 1985 was a very tough one against James Tillis, and he went into that one overweight too.
I think Coetzee was done or at least at world level. He took a pretty bad beating from Page in '84 then proceeded to only appear once in the next 15 months against an equally shot James Tillis. Couple that with his on going personal battles with his father who apparently handled his career and the writing was basically on the wall.
Nah. Coetzee looked lethargic in the Tillis fight in '85. Bruno had reestablished himself after the Bonecrusther loss. Bruno's loss to Bonecrusher happened BEFORE Coetzee's loss to Page. Coetzee fought only once between Page and Bruno, and that was a decision over Tillis. The Mags. said Coetzee looked very ordinary against Tillis, who was himself in the midst of a losing streak. It was not a surprise when Bruno iced Coetzee. I was a regular reader of KO and Ring at the time.