Gerrie Coetzee

The Leon Spinks fight was an upset, as was the fight against Dokes. Those are his too best.

 

his fights with Renaldo Snipes, Pinklon Thomas and Mike Weaver were all wars. He was a tough man who had some hand surgeries done during his career. The result was having some bones in his right hand fused together which turned his fist into a deadly weapon and coining the nickname “ the bionic hand. “ Coetzee’s citizenship in South Africa made him an unpopular opponent to US promotors given the politics surrounding apartheid in the 80’s. But personally he was and still is thought of as a good man even by many of his former opponents. I’m connected to him on Facebook but never actually spoke to him. He’s clicked like on a few of my posts though !!!

 

Inconsistent would describe him best.
Had that bionic hand and excellent athleticism but only rarely seemed to be adequately focused.
Got screwed outta fighting Holmes due to apartheid.

 

I thought his fight with Holmes was called off due to Coetzee backing out because of injury but I could be wrong. Lots of stories thrown around over the years. Apparently his father managed his career and was a difficult man.

 

Not completely true.

Holmes refused to fight him in South Africa due to apartheid (being one of many high-profile celebrities, including tennis great Arthur Ashe, to speak out against that country’s racist form of government — even to the point of getting arrested at a protest in front of the South African embassy) and told Don King to go pound sand even though there was talk of a record purse of more than $20M for Larry.

But in 1984, Holmes did agree to fight Coetzee in Las Vegas. That fight fell apart when Caesar’s Palace pulled out over questions of financing:

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/sports/holmes-coetzee-fight-is-off.html

Ironically, the casino ended up hosting Hearns-Duran on the scheduled date — that fight was supposed to have taken place in the Bahamas but money behind that venture didn’t materialize and Caesar’s stepped in to salvage the fight on its property.

 

Tha

That must have been it then. I knew that Coetzee had signed to fight Holmes and then backed out but I was never certain of the exact reason.

 

His fights with Mike "the tank" Schutte were freaking wars. Some of the dirtiest fighting I've seen. The two fights were rough affairs Coetzee broke his hands on Schutte's head trying to KO him. Schutte was one of the best 'fat guys' I have seen in boxing. The fight was floating around without sound for a while on youtube.

Coetzee gave some good fighters all they could handle, including Thomas, Dokes, Fourie, Snipes, Weaver and Tate. And of course he famously blew away Leon Spinks when Spinks unwisely tried to take the fight to him early.

He was a good boxer, with good power, timing and accuracy and a decent chin. He seemed to run out of gas late in fights though.

 

Here's his sweet domestic fight with Knoetze, a heavy handed slugger:

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Coetzee is a man using just physical talent in that fight. He looks like he is almost untrained in that video. He lunges, his feet are all over, his chin is up, he does almost everything wrong. If he could beat Knoetze with that level of training, he might have been incredible if he had been trained by someone who stressed fundamentals.

I'm going to have to watch some of his fights, if he was competitive with Dokes, Weaver, Thomas, Snipes, etc. without improving his fundamentals, he must have had unreal physical talent. Did he get better later?

 

He did improve technically imho, but he also put on weight and slowed down. He was competitive with all those guys. He beat Dokes, lost to Weaver and imho beat Thomas and Snipes as well. You are correct, when he was younger he was physically much more impressive. Frankly I think Knoetze won the fight vs Coetzee, but maybe the KD swayed the judges.

 

Here's Coetzee vs Dokes. Also a nice fight.

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Edit: looks like a different fighter, hey?

 

I think Coetzee won WBA title for sure, Dokes.

 

Big, fast and accurate with thunderous power in his right cross and uppercut. He was in some terrific tear ups, none better than his toe to toe with Mike Weaver.
Despite South Africa being a pariyah state back then, Coetzee was popular with fight fans for his exciting style and the fact that he always carried himself with dignity. No trash talk or nonsense.