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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Gerrie Coetzee, a former South African boxer and WBA heavyweight champion who defied a few of his nation’s racist legal guidelines in the course of the peak of apartheid within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties and received reputation with Nelson Mandela and each Black and white followers, has died. He was 67.
Coetzee died on Thursday in Cape City simply over every week after being identified with lung most cancers, his former supervisor, Thinus Strydom, stated Friday.
Coetzee, who was white, was the primary African boxer to win a world heavyweight title. He knocked out American rival Michael Dokes within the tenth spherical in Richfield, Ohio, in 1983 to win the WBA belt, an enormous upset that was celebrated all through South Africa regardless of it being fragmented on the time by the apartheid legal guidelines of racial segregation.
Coetzee’s victory additionally made him the primary white boxer to win a world heavyweight title in additional than 20 years however he made clear after the battle in opposition to Dokes how a lot he disliked being labeled “the good white hope.”
“I really feel I’m combating for everyone, Black and white,” Coetzee stated. “What makes me glad is for Black, brown and white individuals to just accept me as their fighter.”
They did in South Africa and Coetzee was awarded the The Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze in 2003 by South Africa’s democratically-elected post-apartheid authorities for his boxing success and for his contribution to “nation-building via sport.”
The federal government stated tens of millions of Black South Africans rooted for Coetzee throughout his profession, “thereby confounding the false logic of apartheid.”
Coetzee stated considered one of his most treasured moments got here when Mandela, an enormous boxing fan, requested to satisfy him within the early Nineties. Mandela, who would turn out to be South Africa’s first democratically-elected president in 1994, had simply been launched from jail after 27 years for combating in opposition to apartheid.
“It was overwhelming as a result of the nation was making ready for democracy and Mr. Mandela was main the best way,” Coetzee stated. “It was a surreal second and he awarded me a medal. I used to be stunned to listen to that he had listened to radio commentaries of some of my fights whereas he was in jail.”
At a later assembly with Mandela, Coetzee needed to offer the Nobel Peace Prize winner a present in return and selected a medal that he had beforehand been awarded by the apartheid authorities. Mandela did not even flinch when he discovered the place the medal got here from, Coetzee stated, and graciously accepted the present.
“It didn’t appear to hassle Mr. Mandela … He noticed it as a present from me and I used to be grateful for that,” Coetzee stated.
Coetzee lastly received the heavyweight title on his third try after dropping to John Tate in 1979 in a battle for the WBA belt made vacant by Muhammad Ali’s retirement. Coetzee additionally misplaced a second WBA title shot when he challenged Mike Weaver in 1980 and was stopped within the thirteenth spherical.
Coetzee had stopped former undisputed heavyweight champion Leon Spinks within the first spherical in Monaco in 1979 in his first battle exterior South Africa, making the world conscious of his capability. However it took him one other 4 years to win a title.
Coetzee’s victory over Dokes for the WBA title got here at a worth. He broke his proper hand earlier within the battle however nonetheless managed to knock out Dokes with a sequence of rights, his supervisor stated. He wanted surgical procedure quickly after.
Coetzee had persistent harm issues with that potent proper hand and it was operated on quite a few occasions all through his profession, main South African heavyweight rival Kallie Knoetze to offer Coetzee the nickname “Sore Little Palms.” Coetzee was additionally generally known as “The Bionic Hand.”
His most important nickname, although, was the “Boksburg Bomber” in reference to his working-class residence city close to Johannesburg. Coetzee’s first skilled battle was in 1974, and he typically fought in opposition to Black fighters in South Africa in entrance of racially-mixed crowds. He appointed a South African man of Indian heritage to be his media spokesman, which additionally angered the apartheid authorities.
Within the Eighties, Coetzee agreed to coach a younger Black fighter and invited him to stick with him in his residence in defiance of strict apartheid legal guidelines on the time that outlawed Blacks dwelling in the identical neighborhoods as whites. Police searched Coetzee’s residence and issued him with a courtroom summons due to it. Coetzee stated he ignored the summons and legally adopted the boy, whose mother and father had died.
Coetzee fought 40 occasions, with 33 wins (21 by knockout), six losses and a draw.
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Extra AP boxing: https://apnews.com/hub/boxing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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