Tell me More about Gerrie Coetzee

I just watched his fight against Bruno, an absolute demolition by Frank. Been watching a lot of Bruno's fights and interviews, he seems like a guy that's really nice and at least for me, I think he has the most recognizable voice in boxing. He kinda sounds like a British Andre the Giant , to my ears.

 

Which is the problem: None of them held his belt long enough to do more than take a few pictures for posterity to prove they held it — that’s not how unifications get made. It’s easy to look back and say ‘Holmes should have unified,’ but there was no demand for those fights because none of the ‘others’ distinguished themselves enough to make people want to see a showdown to decide the ‘true heavyweight champ.’ Because everyone knew it was Holmes and nobody made a case otherwise.

Due to this, the economics weren’t there. Heck, in most cases to even begin negotiations for such they’d have lost it before the two sides sat down to the table.

 

If I recall correctly the fight with Page featured a rather extended final round in which Coetzee was KO’d, at something like the 3 and 1/2 minute mark. Should have been sitting on the stool. Given the fight was relatively back and forth it’s odd that this wasn’t an issue with the Coetzee camp. Page ‘qualified’ for his title shot by losing to David Bey
The 80s had their moments….
Coetzee was a fine fighter, as good as anyone else not named Larry Holmes for about a 4-5 year period.
He did seem like a decent man and was anti-apartheid, unlike his some of his contemporaries.
He did seem to lose focus on occasion.
The fight with Pinklon was a good one, with Gerrie having enough of an early lead to salvage a draw.

 

Yeah the round went on too long for sure. Gerrie's camp protested but failed. For me Page was taking over at that point and could take Coetzee's best while the reverse wasn't true.

Gerrie was a genuine top 5 performer and better for years indeed.

 

I feel you can only hold the Thomas and Page fights not happening against Holmes and while I feel Larry wins both they would have been great fights provided Pinklon and Greg were focused.

 

Excellent post!

 

Gerrie seemed like a rather limited fighter who got by on a solid punch and a lot of courage. I find it hard to see how he would have stood a chance against Holmes. I honestly can't see Gerrie lasting past round 10. Even if Larry had an off night I still think he would have been able to turn it around. Gerrie was dismantled against Page who was a sort of poor man's Holmes, although to be fair it was an exciting fight and as mentioned above Page did get away with clobbering him in his corner!

 

Never understood why Coetzee didn’t get a rematch with Page considering the KO happened at like the 4-minute mark of the round because the timekeeper fell asleep at the wheel (literally or figuratively).