Mike Weaver vs Gerrie Coetzee(1980)

[Brutu]

for the WBA Heavyweight Championship
October-25-1980
Sun City,South Africa


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ6pNhOINqI

[Counter-puncher]

Weaver did some fantastic bodypunching in that fight

[Flump]

Weaver was in some really good fights (this one, Holmes, Dokes II), almost always good to watch. Just when his career looked finished he'd rebound with a solid win too(Williams, DuPlooy, Cooper).

[RazorKO]

I saw this live on TV when it happened. I was only maybe 19 at the time. Coetzee had him in that 8th round but Weaver weathered the storm.

Great fight.

[dempseyfire]

Another example of Coatzee's atrocious stamina . . .

[RadioElRadar]

Good fight, the Bionic Hand did gas but had dished out and taken a lot of heavy stuff. The 8th is great round.

I had it 116-113 Weaver going into the 13th.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Great fight, something that defenders of this era don't understand. There were great fights in other shallow eras because all of those guys fought each other. I watched Bonecrusher/Bruno again the other day, very dramatic and entertaining fight.

[RadioElRadar]

Here's an excellent retrospective piece on the fighters' backgrounds and careers up to that point, as well as the build-up to the fight itself:

http://www.belovedonslaught.com/2012/06 ... errie.html

And here's Saad's synopsis of it from his erstwhile 100 Fights list:

72. Mike Weaver TKO13 Gerrie Coetzee

An underrated and vicious Heavyweight brawl from the 80's. I couldn't find the whole fight, but here is a spectacular eighth round and the 13th is on there too. Coetzee threw everything he had at Mike and Weaver just soaked it up and fired back.

Weaver was wired weird, he could get starched early or he could endure pain like a terminator. This was a terminator day and he outlasted the Bionic hand in a thriller. Gerrie bounced one right hand after another off of Mike’s jaw and he just kept coming. One thing Weaver always had was great conditioning, and it saw him through here.

Saad, let me know if you object to me using this and I'll take it down.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Of course not, I'm glad someone enjoys it. Feel free to post or use anything I ever conjure up.

[Brutu]

Sounds like Gerrie Coetzee may have had high blood pressure.
Thats how Joe Frazier felt when he woke up in Jamacia while training to defend the title against Foreman.

[kaiserbill]

Gerrie Coetzee was an asthmatic.

I thought it was common knowledge by now?

When he was a kid, a doctor suggested he played sport to help combat the effects of the asthma, and he took up boxing.

Terrific fight btw.

Coetzee got his title 3 years later, knocking Michael Dokes out in the 10th.