how come he never gets any grief for this fact? he was fighting novices like Marvis Frazier, instead of unifying. popular theory at the time was that he was cherry picking his way to breaking Rocky Marciano's unbeaten record. he would then retire.
No way was he cherry picking! He beat Whitherspoon, Berbick, Weaver, Smith , they all became champion after their Holmes fight! also he beat ****ey, Bey , Williams, Mercer who were all undefeated at the time.
what on earth does beating mercer in the nineties have to do with the question? he fought quite a string of nobodies while champ.
Larry Holmes and Gerrie Coetzee tried to unify for more than a year, but everyone seemed intent on blocking it.
Anyone who was watching boxing then knows that Holmes didn't cherry pick. Don King was responsible for that shyt.
:deal Failing to try to unify: Not Good. Lending legitimacy to an upstart governing body when two already existed: A sin against boxing. :fire
TALK OF COETZEE-HOLMES BOUT BEGINS By MICHAEL KATZ Published: September 25, 1983 CLEVELAND, Sept. 24— Gerrie Coetzee said he could not sleep. He got out of bed and took a sleeping pill. It didn't work. He tried another. Still no sleep. Perhaps the new World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, the first white heavyweight champion since Ingemar Johansson lost the title back to Floyd Patterson in 1960, should have tried counting money, especially if he can get Larry Holmes, the World Boxing Council champion, in the same ring with him. ''Conceivably, that would be the biggest-grossing fight in history,'' said Cedric Kushner, Coetzee's adviser, today. ''Imagine, Larry Holmes, a black American, versus Gerrie Coetzee, a white South African.'' In boxing, where black and white add up to green, this thought had occurred to some other people less than 12 hours after Coetzee knocked out previously undefeated Michael Dokes in the 10th round for the W.B.A. title. ''Larry will be watering at the mouth,'' said Don King, the black promoter who has emerged with a contract giving him the rights to all of the white South African's title defenses. ''It's another Gerry ****ey situation.'' Money on Holmes's Mind ''I'm in the money-making business in my last days of boxing,'' said Holmes this morning by telephone from his Easton, Pa., home. ''If I can fight a guy for $10 million, why should I fight for $1 million.'' Coetzee, who promised that he would defend his title in the United States, ''where I won it,'' said, ''That's the fight I really want.'' ''I think he'd flatten Larry Holmes,'' said Jackie McCoy, the West Coast trainer whose six weeks of work with Coetzee was so instrumental in defeating Dokes. Holmes said he was more than willing to fight Coetzee, ''but not over there in South Africa.'' Holmes has long been an outspoken critic of that country's policy of apartheid, or separation of races. ''I have to do what the people want,'' he said. ''If people want it, I'd cancel the Frazier fight if they put the money up.'' It is unlikely that Holmes will withdraw from his Nov. 25 defense against Marvis Frazier. And he has a commitment to King to make his mandatory defense against Greg Page in February or March next year. If the champion, who soon will be 34 years old, continues to fight at all next year, though, he knows his biggest payday would be against Coetzee, the gentle man with the hammering right hand. Coetzee, who calls apartheid ''rubbish,'' was asked at a news conference this morning about the black- white ''thing.'' 'I'm Proud of My Color' ''I suppose it's a thing you can't stop,'' he said. ''I don't like it very much. I'm proud of my color. Everybody should be proud of himself. But when I go into the ring, I am fighting an opponent, not a color.'' He fought extremely well Friday night in the Richfield (Ohio) Coliseum, 25 miles from here and only 10 miles from Dokes's hometown of Akron. Quickly, Coetzee learned that Dokes could not hurt him. Quickly, Dokes learned that Coetzee could hurt him. ''You can't get intimidated with this guy,'' said Holmes, who gave Dokes only two rounds. ''If you give him room, he'll hit you.'' ''Early in the first round,'' said McCoy, ''he hurt him with a right hand to the body and a left hook to the side of the head. From that moment, he had Dokes thinking about both hands.'' The knockout was achieved with two chopping right hands to the head of the virtually defenseless Dokes. But Coetzee won the fight with his left hand, the hand that Dokes did not think his opponent had, the hand that McCoy developed. Left Hooks Find Mark It was a left hook that set up a short right hand that dropped Dokes in the fifth round. And it was more left hooks that helped take away the last of Dokes's considerable fighting spirit in the 10th until he dropped his hands, partly in fatigue, partly in pain, and perhaps partly in the hope that Coetzee would finally end the punishment. This 28-year-old South African, who had lost previous W.B.A. title fights to John Tate and Mike Weaver, did even while feeling pain shoot through his right hand, which has been broken 10 times. This morning, Coetzee was scheduled to be taken to a local hospital for X-rays of the hand by the same doctor who earlier had escorted Coetzee's wife, Rena, there for a Caesarean operation to deliver their third child. ''My third child,'' said Coetzee. ''And my third shot.''
UNDEFEATED BOXER CLOSE TO FREEDOM MICHAEL KATZ ON BOXING Published: September 28, 1983 Gerrie Coetzee will not be fighting Larry Holmes in the immediate future, if ever. The new World Boxing Association heavyweight champion will probably make one defense before Don King, his promoter, gives Michael Dokes a rematch. That defense, King has said, could be against Tim Witherspoon, who like Dokes is managed by the promoter's son, Carl King. However, Cedric Kushner, Coetzee's adviser and King's promotional partner, would prefer an easier match against John Tate or Randall (Tex) Cobb. Kushner would also like that fight to be held in South Africa, where King said he would never go. . . . King has been occupied almost daily with the suit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan brought against him by Butch Lewis over the services of Greg Page, the top-ranked World Boxing Council heavyweight and Holmes's first scheduled opponent in 1984 if the champion continues fighting next year. But if the promoter has any time Thursday, he is scheduled to meet with Howie Albert, the manager of Juan LaPorte, to try to settle their differences and arrange a W.B.C. featherweight title defense against Wilfredo Gomez. Albert thought he had that fight arranged for Madison Square Garden on Oct. 21, but the Garden has given up waiting and has given that date over to a rock music group.
HOLMES SEEKS BOUT AGAINST COETZEE By MICHAEL KATZ Published: November 27, 1983 LAS VEGAS, Nev., Nov. 26— Larry Holmes said today that he was ''semiretired'' and that only a meeting with Gerrie Coetzee would make him fight again. ''There will not be any more fights for Larry Holmes,'' said the 34-year- old World Boxing Council champion today after his one-round embarrassment of Marvis Frazier. ''I am retired if that fight does not come off. Gerrie Coetzee will override anything I want to do.'' Holmes, undefeated in 45 fights with 32 knockouts, and considered among the best heavyweights ever, has defended his title 17 times in five and a half years. If a bout with Coetzee, the South African who holds the World Boxing Association title, does not materialize by March, ''I'll quit,'' he said at a news conference attended by Coetzee's South African promoter, Cedrick Kushner. If Holmes holds to his statement, there will be no mandatory defense against Greg Page, a fight for which Holmes has signed but for which he is unhappy with the money offered him. If he fails to fight Page, the W.B.C. may announce at its annual convention here next month that the top- ranked Page will meet Tim Witherspoon, the No. 2 contender, for the title. Holmes kept joking with Kushner, who is a ''joint promoter'' for Coetzee with Don King. The champion kept raising his price for a Coetzee bout, as if he had a meter running. ''It'll be 100 million and 27 dollars and 25 cents,'' said Holmes for starters, then wound up with ''100 million 67 dollars and 22 cents.'' A Coetzee fight could probably earn Holmes $5 million to $10 million. The champion said he was unsure if he would be willing to meet Coetzee in South Africa, because of that country's racial policy, which Holmes has often criticized. Coetzee, who was at the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion ringside for the Frazier fight Friday night, said that fighting in this country ''would take a lot of pressure off both Larry and me.'' Frazier, the first son of a world champion to get a title shot, seemed to be living out his father's fantasy. The 23-year-old challenger, wearing the same-style trunks and robe that Joe Frazier wore when he beat Muhammad Ali in a 1971 title bout, was child's play for Holmes. Marvis, in only his 11th professional fight, fell for a left-jab feint and was nailed by a straight right to the chin. He was up at the count of 8, but Holmes battered him into a corner and Referee Mills Lane stopped the bout at 2 minutes 57 seconds. ''Fighters like that are made for me,'' said Holmes. ''I don't have any problems with fighters coming to me, or who stand in front of me. They're face fighters, and you don't drop your hands with a man who can throw a jab 100 miles an hour.'' Marvis dropped his hands after slipping a few jabs, and taunted the champion. Holmes was in no mood for that. He grabbed the 200-pound Frazier, who was giving away 19 pounds, and threw him into the ropes. Before the action, the two had adjoining dressing rooms, and through the thin walls Holmes said he could hear the Frazier clan disparaging the champion who was favored at 4-1. Holmes does not believe in sparing the rod when punishing a disrespectful child. Marvis, saying ''it's more pride, I'm not physically hurt,'' was soothed by the champion today. 'Take Your Time' ''Take your time,'' Holmes told him. ''I waited until Muhammad Ali and your father and George Foreman were out of the picture before I made my move. You've got lots of time. Greg Page is over the hill already. Coetzee, he's going in his next fight, and anyway, everytime he hits something, his hand falls off.'' ''I would say from last night, I would take the champ's advice,'' said Joe Frazier. The 39-year-old former champion said he had ''no regrets at all'' about having matched his son with the champion. ''What happened last night could happen to anybody,'' he said. ''We don't have no excuses. We just didn't plan for that right hand. ''How many seconds were left in the round, two, three? I'll bring a bell with me next time. I usually come prepared. Let's see, I had the referee, the judges, the rings, but I forgot that bell.'' Marvis said he would rest ''two months, four months, six months.'' If the Fraziers were not embarrassed by the brevity of the fight, NBC was. Mike Weisman, the director of the prime-time telecast, which included Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini's knockout at 2:58 of the first round of Johnny Torres, a club fighter, said: ''With our luck, when we show the replay of the Hagler-Duran fight, Duran will get stopped in four.'' Duran lasted the distance with Marvelous Marvin Hagler on Nov. 10 in their middleweight title fight..
SPORTS PEOPLE SPORTS PEOPLE; Holmes vs. W.B.C. Published: November 29, 1983 Larry Holmes made a triumphant return yesterday to his home in Easton, Pa., but he was still sparring with the World Boxing Council over its insistence that he defend his heavyweight title next against Greg Page instead of Gerrie Coetzee . ''I don't want them to try to dictate to me two days after the fight,'' he said, referring to his first-round knockout of Marvis Frazier on Friday in Las Vegas, Nev. ''I'm semi-retired,'' said the 34-year-old Holmes. ''If the Coetzee fight doesn't come, I'll retire in March. If I don't fight Coetzee, I'll quit.'' Holmes was smarting over reports from Bangkok, Thailand, that the W.B.C. president, Jose Sulaiman , had threatened to strip him of the title if he should fight Coetzee before Page. Holmes had agreed to meet the top-ranked Page in a mandatory title defense in February or March but now says that he can earn much more than the $2.55 million offered for that bout by facing Coetzee, the World Boxing Association champion. ''I don't like to be threatened or told what to do,'' said Holmes, who said he was thinking about relinquishing the W.B.C. title and accepting recognition instead from the International Boxing Association.