Boxing legend Gerrie Coetzee passed away

One of South Africa’s greatest boxing heroes of all time – if not the greatest – died on Thursday after a very short battle with cancer.

According to Gerrie Coetzee’s family, he was recently diagnosed with a very aggressive form of lung cancer.

Coetzee (67) is a boxing and sports legend in South Africa and he was undoubtedly the biggest boxing star in the country during an era (1970s and 1980s) when this sport was extremely popular among the South African public.

Those were the days when every Afrikaans boy in primary school had a poster of Gerrie Coetzee on his bedroom wall, while top boxers counted among the A-list celebs in the country’s social circles. To illustrate the extent to which Coetzee was a household name in South Africa in those years, it can be mentioned that even his dog, a spaniel named Wendy, was known and loved by the South African public.

This native of Boksburg on the East Rand was the first South African to ever win a heavyweight world title as a boxer. To put this into perspective, it should be mentioned that this was in an era before the sport lost its credibility (to a great extent) and when there were only a few reputable global boxing governing organizations.

Coetzee was a national amateur heavyweight champion with nearly 200 fights under his belt before turning professional in 1974.

“The Boksburg Bomber”, as he was also known, was a national amateur heavyweight champion with almost 200 fights under his belt before he started boxing professionally in 1974. In the mid-1970s, when boxing was still one of South Africa’s biggest spectator sports, Coetzee’s fights with other local legends such as Mike Schutte (1976 and again in 1977), Kallie Knoetze (1976) and Pierre Fourie (1977) attracted large crowds and received a lot of publicity in the newspapers.

He later rose above all these local rivals and was given the opportunity to fight for a world title three times.

In October 1979 he lost on points to John Tate of America in his first attempt to win the World Boxing Association World Heavy Title, which took place in front of 80,000 spectators at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

Exactly one year later, in October 1980, Coetzee got another chance to fight for the World Boxing Association’s title. This time it was against Mike Weaver from America and the fight took place in the Superbowl at Sun City. In that fight – Coetzee’s 25th as a professional boxer – Weaver also became the first boxer to knock out Coetzee.

It was third time lucky for Coetzee when, in September 1983, he again got the chance to bring home the World Boxing Association’s heavyweight title. This time his opponent was Michael Dokes from America and the fight took place in Richfield, Ohio in America. Coetzee sent Dokes to the canvas in the 10th round of their fight to win the title.

Unfortunately, Coetzee lost his title during his first attempt to defend it in December 1984, when he was knocked out in the eighth round by American Greg Page in a controversial fight. The fight also took place in the Superbowl at Sun City.

Coetzee retired from boxing in 1993 at the age of 38, but in 1997 he made a brief comeback at the age of 42 for two fights, winning one and losing one. Ultimately, he was in action in 40 professional fights, of which he won 33 (21 knockouts) and lost six, while one fight ended in a draw.

After a long stay in America, Coetzee later returned to South Africa, where he ran a business as a dental technician. It was also recently announced that a film will be made about his life.

Coetzee is survived by his wife, Rina, three children and seven grandchildren.

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