Pinklon Thomas-Gerrie Coetzee

I actually had Coetzee winning the fight by a single round, and it was tough to score. I think the draw was legitimate.

Thomas was coming on really strong at the end though. Had the bout been scheduled for 12 rounds, I think Thomas would have won.

Coetzee did his best work in the early and middle rounds. He had Thomas hurt a little in the fifth or sixth.

 

Totally fair verdict. Basically Coetzee won the first half and Thomas the second.

 

Yup, straight up.

 

It was very definitely a legitimate draw. This was one of those situations where the judges did their jobs well.

Coetzee's father inflicted lack of self confidence cost him in this one. Thomas performed with great confidence on the other hand. Gerrie tried jabbing with Pinklon, but his jab certainly wasn't on par with what Thomas had. Gerrie was a better two fisted boxer though, and he had the edge in power with his right.

From my perspective, Gerrie's tendency to fade late was more a manifestation of his concern over becoming fatigued, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the scheduled distance had been for twelve rounds, then Thomas would have probably overtaken Gerrie on the scoring. But if Coetzee hadn't been turned into such a headcase by his father Philip, then Pink may not have lasted into the tenth round.

I liked Coetzee, and it was somewhat frustrating to see his lack of confidence and that inferior jab of his, which should have been far better developed than it ever became. (It did key his win over Dokes much the way Ingo's jab did against Patterson, but Gerrie ought to have had a good enough jab to win decisions at the world class level with that tool alone.)

A rematch might have garnered enough interest to merit another telecast. It was an interesting chessmatch, which Coetzee's power could have turned at any time. His perceived lack of staying power was another factor which could have sold a 12 round return go. Of course nobody else ever came so close to defeating Thomas during Holmes's reign as champion.

 

I haven't seen the fight since it was originally broadcast in 1983, but if I remember correctly, Coetzee had Thomas hurt and possibly ready to go during the middle rounds. Am I correct? I think it was the sixth round.

Of course Thomas recovered completely and gradually took control of the bout after the middle rounds. I seem to remember Coetzee being hurt in round ten.

 

Bloody nice post. Coetzee was a damn good fighter in the 80's, just a shade off being front line, confidence as you say. He was unlucky to actually run into an inspired Greg Page, as it was he hit Page with shots that would have won fights against other good heavies. Gerrie was a tough fight for anyone at his best.

 

I haven't seen it since the original broadcast either, but my recollection substantiates your own. My chief memory of that match are Coetzee's pitiful mid ring attempts to jab with Thomas, while the commentators critiqued his technique. (Gerrie got no extension, no power into his jabs. They were paltry arm punches which didn't look like they would have bothered a flyweight.)

 

It seems remarkable that John Tate withstood Coetzee's right, although Tate did buckle when it connected. After the way Big John dominated Weaver, I figured Hercules was dead meat when he went to defend against Gerrie. I believed that Coetzee had the skill necessary to outpoint Mike handily at home, and certainly the right hand necessary to take Weaver out. Instead, Hercules elevated himself above and beyond the lowest level of HW title claimants he was thought to belong to after the Tate knockout. At least Gerrie did have that one moment of glory against Dokes.

 

Yeah Weaver raised his game about 5 levels vs Holmes and for a handful of fights after tho as you say Tate was mostly having his way with him. Remember Coetzee as a title shot choker early career? I'm sure you will and as you point out his fathers impact on his confidence didn't help any. I have an article somewhere saying Coetzee for the longest time didn't believe he could compete with the bigger name American fighters.

You would also remember him evolving almost overnight from a very decent boxer with a good left hand and not much power to a right hand assassin after getting the bones of his right hand fused together due to injury. If only my main man at 135 back the Howards Davis had the same op

Another strong memory of Coetzee is his use of Jackie McCoy for the Dokes fight, all of a sudden he rediscovered his left hand and used it brilliantly for both jab and hook. Against Page next fight he was soon turned into a right hand bomber again tho.

Interesting studies both Coetzee and Weaver.

 

You will recall that Gerrie broke his right hand yet again on the next to last punch he hit Dokes with. Nonetheless, he threw the right for a final time with pain to drop Dokes for the count.

Afterwards, it was discovered that all those surgeries on Coetzee's "bionic" right hand were merely treating a symptom, not the cause of all those fractures. Apparently, it was a biomechanical flaw in his shoulder that led to all the problems with his hand. Corrective surgery led to his long hiatus before getting back in the ring with Page. When I read about his previously undiscovered shoulder malfunction, and the surgery to correct it, I thought, "Oh boy, now he'll really be something else!" Instead, he called Greg a "jerk" just before their bout, and Page kept taunting him with, "Here's another one from the jerk!" as he pummelled Gerrie out of the WBA Title.

Vito Antuofermo was somebody else I expected to resurrect his career dramatically after getting the bone protrusions under his eyebrows surgically shaved down, but all the scar tissue which had previously accumulated proved to be too much to overcome. (I wonder how far Vito might have gone had he gotten that protruding bone shaved down at the very outset of his boxing career. Would he still have been the bleeder that he became?)

Jackie McCoy was a shrewd, brilliant character, who certainly did Palomino a world of good. I wonder if Tate would have beaten Coetzee with McCoy in Gerrie's corner.

 

My turn to learn summin from my era. Shoulder, wow. I do know about injury tranferral tho from my time in gyms. It's freaky how far from the percieved injury genuine origin can actually be.

You know i wonder if Tate was one of those fighters who once beaten was cactus for the rest of his career. He beat Coetzee and was beating Weaver solidly. I ponder whether like a Don Curry he was never able to find top form again. The KO against Weaver certainly turned him very fragile. I think he was actually a damn decent fighter who turned damn ordinary post Weaver. I think if he fought Holmes before he was beaten it would have been a nice fight.

 

Well JT, the nature of Tate's widely viewed Olympic knockout at the hands of Teo Stevenson really had caused him to be labeled as damaged goods even before he turned professional. It cost him the spotlight his Gold Medal winning teammates from Montreal enjoyed, until his win over Mercado started to rehabilitate his credibility somewhat. Holmes wasn't the sort of killer that Stevenson was, so a unification between the two would have been very interesting. (I think Larry's speed would have made the difference over 15 rounds.)

Concerning the subject of injury transference and biomechanics, my next attempt to lose weight will once again incorporate running. But before I take action, I'm undergoing a thorough study of proper technique. There's not a great deal of material about foundational bodywork for running, but two authors who have published on the subject are Danny Dreyer (ChiRunning and ChiWalking) and the late Jack Heggie's Feldenkrais based approach (Running with the Whole Body). Heggie's book has chapters with subtitles like: "The Problem in the Knee is in the Shoulder" (Chapter 3) and: "Is the Problem Where the Pain is?" (Chapter 9). For example, Heggie discusses how knee pain can be cause by an ankle problem or certain shoulder movement, how a problem in the knee usually comes from a misuse somewhere else in the body. For Coetzee, the problem with the hand was in the shoulder.

Both Heggie and Dreyer teach how to move in an integrated, congruent, synergistic way, so that all the parts of the body move in harmony for injury prevention and ease of mobility. It's a fascinating and surprising subject to me, learning the myriad of ways in which I had erroneously tried to proceed before.

 

I've never seen this fight, but I wish we could find it somewhere and post the link or whatever. It sounds like it was a good fight.

 

A fair verdict, Coetzee was strong in the early rounds but faded during the later where Thomas took over and secured the draw.

Coetzee was a notorious front runner and was ahead in all his big fights until fatigue set in - Tate, Weaver, Snipes and Thomas are examples of this. Coetzee had the attritbutes of a great heavyweight but his stamina let him down big time.