Kallie Knoetze?

Lost to Coetzee, John Tate. His biggest win (I guess) was stopping Duane Bobick in 3. I found it odd that I remember hearing of him before Coetzee, even though Coetzee had beaten him.

 

Right--the fans boo'd the decision but Coetzee had knocked him down in the 4th.

His biggest win was 1 punch left hook ko over Schutte. He was a right hand brawler from the word go & that was a nasty left hook he caught tough guy Schutte with. If you aren't familar w/ Schutte, he was pretty much a crude tough guy like Cobb and Stander. Knoetze was supposed to have been the original opponent for Frazier when Joe was going to make a comeback in 78.

 

He was a brawling slugger type, who was once a policeman and ,indicted for shooting a civilian during a fracas ,I beleive,he and Coetzee came up the same time ,but Coetzee's people had a bit more "PR" about them and went to pains to stress his opposition to apartheidt.Knoetze allways had a rather negative image,at least out side SA.

 

a specimen, he kept himself in immaculate shape.

 

Seem to remember he had an impressive 'tache, in common with other South African heavies of the era.

 

As far as I remember he made an Italian comedy-movie together with Bud Spencer in the early eighties. Spencer played a boxing trainer and Kallie Knoetze was the "bad guy"
It was quite entertaining.

 

Knoetzee had raw power but no finese, he was rushed...KO'd Bobick Brutal right and KO'd Bill Sharkey who gave Weaver a good one...Could have been better

 

Thats true. And it was going to be televised. The fight was cancelled though, Joe came up lame some how.

 

I don't know if the fella died ,Knoetze could hit with his right ,I don't think he was very well managed.

 

I saw him get knocked out by Coetzee and didn't think it was controversial. Gerrie was the better man and the better fighter.

 

Russell, I think with the right management, Knoetze could have been very popular in the States.
He certainly had a very colourful persona and in SA he was known as the Boom street Bek (translated: Boom street loudmouth.) Kallie borrowed a leaf from Ali's book and would boast about his ring prowess and would always outshout the other guy. He knew how to sell a fight as well as the importance of doing so.

As a fighter he had his limitations but he had flair and yes, could hit like hell. Harder than Coetzee for sure. His problem was a lack of polish and poor stamina - a rather unfortunate trait among many SA heavyweights.

His fight against Mike 'the tank' Schutte showcased his power. Zadfrak is correct in saying that Schutte was a roughouse brawler, but he fought and looked more like Tony Galento than anyone else. Knoetze slammed him to defeat inside a round.
His fight with Coetzee (their only meeting as professionals after a long and bitter rivalry in the amatuers) was one that Coetzee could have finished by the halfway mark yet he chose not to finish off Kallie in order to prolong the torture, but this proved to be a bad miscalculation as Knoetze came back and Gerrie himself was nearly knocked out later in the fight. I can't recall the scoring, but it was close at the end.
Kallie definitely deserved a rematch, but never got one.

His showing against John Tate highlighted his weaknesses unfortunately. Tate ran like a scalded cat whenever Knoetze got in close and waited for Knoetze to tire, which inevitably he did. His leaky defence was breached time after time until Kallie had nothing more to offer and the fight was stopped.

Knoetze's short but colourful run as a heavyweight boxer was ended by Jimmy Abbott, a hulk of a man who blasted him out in a round. Abbott too was a fighter who had potential but squandered it.

With better training and conditioning Knoetze could have been a real hit overseas for a while. He had a certain buzz about him, a flair which came naturally and I think the Americans would have taken to him.. I think with some luck he could maybe have won a belt, but he was too limited in the long run to really hit the big time.