Coetzee also lost a second WBA title shot when he challenged Mike Weaver in 1980 and was stopped in the 13th round.Ĭoetzee had stopped former undisputed heavyweight champion Leon Spinks in the first round in Monaco in 1979 in his first fight outside South Africa, making the world aware of his ability. He saw it as a gift from me and I was grateful for that," Coetzee said.Ĭoetzee finally won the heavyweight title on his third attempt after losing to John Tate in 1979 in a fight for the WBA belt made vacant by Muhammad Ali's retirement. Mandela didn't even flinch when he learned where the medal came from, Coetzee said, and graciously accepted the gift. I was surprised to hear that he had listened to radio commentaries of a few of my fights while he was in prison."Īt a later meeting with Mandela, Coetzee wanted to give the Nobel Peace Prize winner a gift in return and chose a medal that he had previously been awarded by the apartheid government. "It was a surreal moment and he awarded me a medal. Mandela was leading the way," Coetzee said. "It was overwhelming because the country was preparing for democracy and Mr. Mandela, who would become South Africa's first democratically-elected president in 1994, had just been released from prison after 27 years for fighting against apartheid. The government said millions of Black South Africans rooted for Coetzee during his career, "thereby confounding the false logic of apartheid."Ĭoetzee said one of his most treasured moments came when Mandela, a big boxing fan, asked to meet him in the early 1990s. 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 government for his boxing success and for his contribution to "nation-building through sport." "What makes me happy is for Black, brown and white people to accept me as their fighter." "I feel I am fighting for everybody, Black and white," Coetzee said. He knocked out American rival Michael Dokes in the 10th round in Richfield, Ohio, in 1983 to win the WBA belt, a big upset that was celebrated throughout South Africa despite it being fragmented at the time by the apartheid laws of racial segregation.Ĭoetzee's victory also made him the first white boxer to win a world heavyweight title in more than 20 years but he made clear after the fight against Dokes how much he disliked being labeled "the great white hope." He was 67.Ĭoetzee died on Thursday in Cape Town just over a week after being diagnosed with lung cancer, his former manager, Thinus Strydom, said Friday.Ĭoetzee, who was white, was the first African boxer to win a world heavyweight title. Send us feedback.Gerrie Coetzee, former WBA heavyweight champion, dies at 67ĬAPE TOWN, South Africa - Gerrie Coetzee, a former South African boxer and WBA heavyweight champion who defied some of his country's racist laws during the height of apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s and won popularity with Nelson Mandela and both Black and white fans, has died. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'black box.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. 2022 The black box is where the passthrough camera shows my real-world keyboard and mouse (blacked out by the headset for privacy reasons). 2022 Pedestrian crashes also lack the force to wake up a car’s black box. 2022 The designer-level cologne also comes in a bottle fit for royalty, cradled in an opulent padded black box. 2022 The new feature stops short of truly demystifying that black box by providing more granular details on specific activity or accounts influencing the algorithmic recommendations. 2023 Gandy agrees the agency should assess the need for a black box warning that could include every class of drug-such as anticoagulants, tPA, and antiplatelet treatments-that can cause or increase the risk of brain bleeding. 2023 The Mounjaro packaging contains a black box warning about thyroid C-cell tumors. 2023 The Black Box Problem Attempts to break open Moscow’s digital black box have been stonewalled. Adjective Binance itself has been a black box, offering little information about its financials or even where it is based, the Journal has previously reported.
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