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He had lung cancer, said his former manager, Thinus Strydom.
Coetzee, who was white, was the first African boxer to win the world heavyweight title. He won his WBA belt in 1983 by knocking out American rival Michael Doakes in the 10th round in Litchfield, Ohio. A major upset was celebrated across South Africa at the time, despite being fragmented by racist apartheid laws.
Coetzee’s victory made him the first white boxer to win the world heavyweight title in over 20 years.
“I feel like I’m fighting for everyone in black and white,” Coetzee said. “What makes me happy is that black, brown and white people accept me as a fighter.”
Coetzee says one of his most treasured moments came in the early 1990s when Mandela, a huge boxing fan, asked him to meet him. Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994, had just been released from prison for 27 years in his fight against apartheid.
“I was overwhelmed because the country was preparing for democracy and Mandela was leading the way,” Coetzee said. “It was a surreal moment.
Coetzee, who broke his right hand in a fight with the Dokes, had persistent injury problems with his powerful right hand, undergoing multiple surgeries throughout his career. South African heavyweight rival Curry Knudze nicknamed Mr Coetzee “a sore little hand”. Also, Mr. Coetzee was sometimes called “bionic hand”.
However, his primary nickname was “Boksburg Bomber”, after his working-class hometown near Johannesburg.
Gerhardus Christian Coetzee was born on April 8, 1955 in Boksburg, South Africa. He married and had three children, but no list of survivors was immediately available.
His first professional fight was in 1974, when he often fought black fighters in front of racially mixed crowds in South Africa. He also appointed a South African man of Indian descent as a spokesman for the media that angered the apartheid government.
In the 1980s, Mr. Coetzee agreed to train a young black fighter and asked him to stay with him in his home, ignoring the then-strict apartheid laws that prohibited blacks from living in the same neighborhood as whites. invited the
Police searched Coetzee’s home and issued a subpoena to the court. Coetzee ignored his subpoena and said his parents had legally adopted the deceased boy.
Coetzee fought 40 times, winning 33 (21 knockouts), losing 6 and drawing 1.
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