Gerrie Coetzee, former South African heavyweight boxing champion, dies at 67

[True Dough]

He was a good man.

CAPE 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. He was 67.

Coetzee died on Thursday in Cape Town just over a week after being diagnosed with lung cancer, his former manager, Thinus Strydom, said Friday.

Coetzee, who was white, was the first African boxer to win a world heavyweight title. 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.

Coetzee'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."

https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/35437508/gerrie-coetzee-former-wba-heavyweight-champion-dies-67