Joe.Kelly wrote: ↑03 Nov 2021, 18:25
A couple of years ago someone posted a number of Coetzee's very early fights. I'm talking about bouts he had in 1975 and 1975. With the exception of the Knoetze bout, all of those fights have been taken down however.
Gerrie Coetzee vrs Mike Schutte IIn (April 1977)
was once on youtube too.
but it was their first fight (April 1976)
that I wanna see !
Coetzee, inspired by George Foreman and Larry Holmes, decides to make a comeback of his own against Iran Barkley who had been competing in cruiserweight and heavyweight bouts since 1993.
Quite a wildly sloppy and pretty exciting contest, but unfortunately Coetzee gets stopped in the tenth round of a scheduled twelve for the vacant WBB Heavyweight championship, a minor title long since defunct.
Al Bernstein at ringside felt the fight was dead even at 85-85 going into the tenth round. Coetzee was far too heavy (253) for the contest.
Caractacus wrote: ↑04 Nov 2021, 15:13
aw, man you messed up the chronology stream-ling of the youtube postings with that one,
I would have gotten to it.
My bad man.
Some of these fights are not out on YouTube but are at Dailymotion, Vimeo or some other streaming platform. I haven't seen the Coetzee-Barkley fight in years. I guess I got excited and thought I would help out, lol.
anyone have any info on which sparring partners Gerrie Coetzee had used
over the course of his career ?
He used Randy Stephens and James Dickson (his only 2 sparring partners)
for the fight with Mike Weaver in South Africa
for his cancelled fight with Alonzo Ratliffe scheduled for October 1982 ( who was to re-place Pinklon Thomas who had a bad back) Coetzee used cruiser-weight Vic Valentino but Coetzee injured his hand and the fight with Ratliff was cancelled.
in 1984 he also had Marty Monroe as a sparring partner for the fight with Greg Page
( but fractured his right thumb hitting him and the fight had to be post-pond a couple of weeks)
I'm pretty sure the Coeztzee vrs Leon Spinks fight was shown live from Monaco on American TV (I remember watching it)
Ken Norton calling it from ringside.
The Tate vrs Coetzee fight I remember was shown on de-layed tape from earlier in the day.
also in that 2017 interview
Coetzee mentions that his September 1985 fight with James "Quick" Tillis in Johannesburg SA
was televised (at least in South Africa)
so be on the look-out for it (if it still exists anyway).
It has to be noted that Leon did go down to cruiserweight for a short time. I think from '82-'86 he was a cruiserweight but lost to Carlos DeLeon, Rocky Sekorski, and Dwight Qawi.
The main problem with Leon was he was too much of a party animal. He was constantly drunk or stoned and had to go to detox centers all the time. Being a cruiserweight may have suited him better but it also required more of a commitment to fitness than heavyweight.
Truth of the matter is Leon was probably never really truly suited to the pros. He was a very good amateur, but it seems to me his ceiling as a professional boxer was guys like Scott LeDoux and Alfio Righetti. He could beat low ranking contenders but that was it.
I'm reminded of that documentary, "Facing Ali," and when it came to the end with Larry Holmes, Leon gave his two cents: "Bullshit. You (Holmes) didn't beat Ali. You beat the man that was once Ali."
And while that sounds great for a film the truth of the matter is Leon Spinks basically fought and defeated an echo of Ali, so his criticism of Larry Holmes just didn't hold any water for me.
yeah but if my math is correct
3:30 pm Sunday afternoon (Mountain time USA)
would be 10;30 pm Monaco(France) time (?)
(math wasn't my strongest subject due to deslexia)
and the fight was Sunday June 24.1979.
BTW for some reason I don't remember Sugar Ray Leonard fighting that day.
( don't think I was particularly a fan of his back then)
Did they show the Coetzee vrs Spinks fight before or after the Leonard fight ?
BTW today is Saturday November 6th 2:00 pm so what would the time be currently in Monaco ?
from 1964-1973
Gerrie Coetzee had 192 amateur bouts
180 wins by KO
and lost only 7 (all by points, )
Coetzee fought Kallie Knoetzee 6 times in the amateurs won 3 and lost 3 all points loses by Kallie Knoetze)
Coetzee won the South African "light-weight" amateur title at age 13 yrs. (circa 1968)
Leon Spinks vrs Gerrie Coetzee was indeed shown live from Monaco ( it would have been 10:00 pm Sunday night there)
on ABC Wild World of Sports Sunday June 24 1979 (which started 3:00 pm Mountain time)
Sugar Ray Leonard vrs Chiaveroni was also shown live from Caesar's Palace,Las Vegas)June 24 1979.
The Leonard fight having been the main event of course, as Leonard was on the verge of a title fight.
I left the house after the Coetzee vrs Spinks fight is probably why I dont remember Sugar Ray Leonard fight