Boksburg ex-heavyweight Johnny Britz dies
Former boxing heavyweight champion Johnny Britz died at his home in Boksburg on Monday, July 14.
He was 65 years-old.
Widely regarded as one of the hard men of SA boxing, he fought from 1969 to 1975 and was involved in 14 fights against SA heavyweight champions including Stoffel Willemse, Japie Pretorius, Chris Roos, Jimmy Richards and Mike Schutte.
“Johnny was a very good boxer and well-respected in Boksburg,” says Britz’ former boxing training partner, Harold Volbrecht at his Nashua Hammer Gym.
“I’ve known him since the 70s and Willie Lock was our trainer. He (Britz) had a problem with his eyes and I remember recently telling the guys here at the gym an interesting story about Johnny.
“We were at training in the gym and he was practising with a punching bag while I was skipping behind him. A big chain holding the punching bag to the roof suddenly fell and both the chain and the punching bag landed on his head.
“He turned around and said, ‘Hey boet! If you hit me with that skipping rope again, we’ll have a problem’.”
Britz was born on January 3, 1949, and fought out of Boksburg, where heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee also lived.
In an unusual start to his career, he had two fights on the night he made his professional debut on August 18, 1969.
He was entered for a heavyweight competition at the Wembley Ice Rink in Johannesburg and knocked out Jan le Roux in the second round before going on to lose on points to Jan Delport.
He then grew from strength-to-strength winning several bouts in impressive fashion before defeating Jimmy Richards over 10 rounds on points to claim the Transvaal heavyweight title.
In April 1972, Richards regained the title by beating Britz on points.
Britz, who also fought Mike Schutte four times, retired after 25 professional fights: winning 12, losing 11 and drawing two. Five of his victories were inside the distance. -@SabeloBoksburg
