Great fight with pretty evenly matched talents. Both are hard fighters with terrific right hands. "Tunder & Lightning" .Vs. "Bionic right hand"!
I think Coetzee might have a little better boxing ability. & would be able to take out Johansson with his powerful right hand when the time came. Plus Coetzee could take a better punch. Coetzee TKO 9th round.
Coetzee would be too slow for a slick boxer like Holmes. Holmes would tattoo Coetzee with the jab & take him out about the Eleventh round. But Coetzee would undoubetly have his moments.
I think Ingo was a good, but not great fighter who capitilzed on beating a champion who was known for going toe to toe and had a questionable chin. Although one could argue that Johansson was more accomplsihed, that doesn't mean better on fight night. Hard to pick a winner here. I don't see a distance fight, and I beleive Coeztee is the more likley of the two to land his best first. A prime Coetzee could take a good punch, so I would go with him. 15 round stamina, and poor juding ( Snipes fight ), and multiple hand injuries were Coetzee's biggest problems. Cotezee was a decent enough of a boxer, and pretty much had some super heavyweight dimensions.
I cant help thinking it would simply come down to the Bigger Man beating the Smaller Man, what was Ingo 185lb ? what was Gerrie 220lb ? I think in this case it is as simple as that, and if Gerries attacks Ingo like he did Weaver then i Think Ingo would succumb, Not less talented, but at a big physical disadvantage.
You summarized my thoughts almost exactly. Coetzee's bigger size -- especially his height and reach -- would have been a big factor in this bout. I cannot imagine Johannson surviving the punishment that Weaver took from Coetzee in their 1980 bout. Weaver was much more durable than Johannson. Gerrie was a pretty good boxer, too, in the early and mid-rounds of his fights. He had excellent hand speed, and he could dance circles around his opponents. Coetzee tended to jab and cross with deadly effectiveness from center ring, tactics that would have come in handy against the smaller Johannson. In terms of talent, I think Coetzee and Johannson were about equal. Both could box, both could punch, and both were fairly good athletes. But I think Gerrie's superior size would have made the difference. Coetzee stops Johannson in about eight rounds in my book. Johannson would have his moments in the early rounds, but after about four or five rounds of cautious boxing by both fighters, Coetzee's booming right hands would find their mark and eventually Ingo would be laid out for the count.
Holmes was the far better fighter but Coetzee could crack with that right, I see Holmes ahead with the jab and movement but CRACK...Coetzee had better size than Shavers could hit a lot harder than Snipes and had a more down the pike right than Shavers with more stamina and a longer reach...Gerrie would be a 5-1 DOG but a live one....I would bet on Coetzee
Holmes would win because of his superior speed, athleticism, toughness, and boxing ability. However I think that Coetzee, on his best night, could have given Holmes a decent fight. Coetzee was pretty fast with his hands and feet, he was a decent boxer, he had power, and he was the same size as Holmes. I believe Holmes would win this fight by a wide decision or by a late rounds TKO. Coetzee would fight well until the later rounds, when he would be so worn down that Larry would pick him apart easily.
I'd pick Coetzee here because of his better set of whiskers. Page and Bruno aside, most his losses were stamina related and I don't think Ingo could wear Coetzee down the way Page did. Coetzee KO 7 or 8. As for Coetzee v Holmes, I have to go with Larry. I think he'd stop Coetzee late, say in 11 or 12. It'd be a fun fight to watch though.