Coetzee was a tough guy who fought many of the best of his era. His one big win was when he won a title by knocking out Dokes. This was in the era when carious commissions began recognizing a number of people as "champion," although Larry Holmes was definitely the actual heavyweight champion.
Dokes was a talented fighter, but like a number of others, he had started using massive amounts of cocaine when he won his title. His defense against Gerrie was supposed to be a tune-up before defending against Greg Page. But one should not "tune-up" on cocaine, in my opinion. (I remember Dokes trying to pick up my sister-in-law at one of the cards my brother fought on. Huge guy.)
In his first defense, he was knocked out by Greg Page -- another talented fighter who could have been great, but for partying. There was controversy in that fight, as the 8th round was allowed to go four minutes before Gerrie was knocked out. Funny how that happened ..... you'd have little trouble in guessing who the promoter was, if you knew who controlled boxing at the time.
All of the other top heavyweights Gerrie fought always really liked and respected him. Much respect.
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