Legend of the Bionic Fist: Gerrie Coetzee Vs Leon Spinks
By Kevin “The Voice” Kincade
On June 24th, 1979, two days after Larry Holmes had successfully defended his WBC strap in a life and death struggle with heretofore unheralded challenger Mike Weaver, the rival sanctioning body, the WBA, hosted their second title elimination bout in Monte Carlo between former Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks and the 5th ranked South African contender, “The Boksburg Bomber”, Gerrie Coetzee. This was to be Spinks’ first fight back after losing to Muhammad Ali in New Orleans in September of last year, an eight month layoff. Spinks, though still relatively untested as a pro at 7-1-1, was favored to beat the 24 year old Boksburg native, who sported an unblemished record of 21-0, 10 KO’s, such was the respect “Neon” Leon had accumulated for his upset win over “The Greatest” in their first match. When he was 5-0-1, Leon had sent the Italian Heavyweight Champion, then 27-0 Alfio Righetti back home to Italy with his first loss, why not do the same thing to the South African Champion with the bad right hand?
Fellow South African, Kallie Knoetzee, who had been stopped by American John Tate not three weeks prior, called his former rival, Coetzee, “Seer Handjies”, which is Afrikaans for “Little Sore Hands” because it seemed Gerrie was always inuring himself. In fact, he was on the mend from a recent surgery on his right hand, which had to have some metal implanted, earning him another nickname, “The Bionic Hand”. Coetzee just seemed to possess brittle bones, which very well could have played into his being such a heavy underdog to Spinks, despite having a pretty good record as a pro. Of course, it didn’t help that he was seemingly slow handed, slow footed, and fought very stiffly upright when compared to Spinks’ fast hands, aggression, stamina, and power.
When he was 13-0 Coetzee faced and defeated his former amateur conqueror, Knoetzee by a hard fought 10 Round decision. Before that, he’d stopped tough American journeyman, Ron Stander in 8 and won via a disqualification over fellow countryman, “The Tank” Mike Shutte. He also had a 6th Round stoppage win over veteran Johnny Boudreaux.
Quite significantly, he’d played a role in the evolution of a country marred by racism under the apartheid system by participating in one of the very first multiracial South African title fights in his country’s history. On November 27th, 1976 at Rand Stadium in Johannesburg, along with Elijah “Tap Tap” Makhathini. “Tap Tap,” who was the “Non-White South African Middleweight Champion,” knocked out South African White Middleweight Champion, Jan Kies in three to become the Supreme or Undisputed South African Middleweight Champion while Coetzee, who was the “White South African Heavyweight Champion,” stopped South African Non-White Heavyweight Champion James Mathatho in 7 Rounds to become the Undisputed South African Heavyweight Champion.
To put the significance of his and Makhathini’s title wins that night into perspective, it would have been the equivalent of John L. Sullivan meeting “Colored World Heavyweight Champion” Peter Jackson in 1889, or akin to James J. Jeffries having met Jack Johnson in 1905. It was a huge moment in South African history.
Mixed bouts between South Africans were legalized the following year in 1977, but the last vestiges of the color bar disappeared only two years later when the system of White, Black and Supreme titles was abolished in 1979, the same year Gerrie Coetzee drew his lot to be in the WBA Heavyweight Championship Tournament against Leon Spinks. Though South Africa had a long way to go, it was a monumentally historical moment and Gerrie Coetzee was a part of it; and now, he had another chance to carve out his own personalized nitch in Heavyweight History as well.
If he defeated Leon Spinks, Gerrie Coetzee would become the first native born African to ever challenge for a version of the World Heavyweight Championship. To get by Leon, he’d have to fight outside of his native South Africa for the first time ever, and with a hand which had just been frankensteined back together. No pressure.
Pressure was something Leon Spinks knew everything about. He had won and then lost the World Heavyweight Championship to a living legend. The amount of scrutiny put on him in the months leading up to his rematch with Ali must have seemed unbearable for the 25 year old. He’d been arrested for possession in the months prior to their Superdome Clash and then on the eve of the big fight, he was nowhere to be found for hours, allegedly carousing in the French Quarter, trying to deal with the pressure any way he could. It was suspected that he was not in the best of shape for his second date with history; but whether he was or was not in the best of physical shape, mentally, he was a wreck by the end.
This fight with Coetzee was to be Leon’s first step back towards vindication and regaining what he had lost. Soon, Ali would be out of the picture and the division would once again belong to the young bloods. One of the “old bloods”, Ken Norton, was sitting ringside in Monte Carlo to call the fight. One got the sense, that despite his 1st Round destruction by Earnie Shavers in March, Norton was on a scouting mission as well as picking up a couple of bucks for his expert commentary. Norton expressed that it was his strong belief that Spinks was going to jump right on top of Coetzee as soon as the bell rang. Turns out, he was dead on.
When the bell sounded, Leon ran across the ring as though he intended to destroy Gerrie Coetzee in the very first round, raining lefts and rights on top of his confused opponent. Leon appeared to be in great shape at 198 ½ lbs., similar to his weight for the first Ali fight, in which he looked spectacular. Coetzee, at 221, seemed slow by comparison and had a hard time getting out of the way of Leon’s punches, opting to cover up, peek-a-boo style, and wait him out.
About a minute into the first, Spinks bulled Coetzee into the ropes again; but this time Gerrie was looking to counter. Though he appeared as though he was swinging his arms under water, he landed a good right counter after pivoting out of the way of a Spinks barrage, bringing the native South Africans, who had made the trip up to Monte Carlo, to scream with delight. Walking his man into the center of the ring, Leon ended up walking into a clinch. As the referee moved in for the break, Leon raised his head so all could see and flashed a mouthguard grin. Gerrie caught him with a right to the jaw for his trouble and received a warning.
Both men then moved in for some infighting before Gerrie backed off and separated himself, giving himself room for his next move. Leon, showing no respect for his opponent, moved right in and started to throw a lazy jab. It never landed; but Leon did, face first on the canvas after a deceptively fast right caught him on the temple. It was the first time he’d ever been knocked down as an amateur or a pro. It would not be the last tonight.
Another right hand and the already wobbly Spinks was teetering again. A follow up combination put him down in a neutral corner. Bravely, grabbing the ropes for support, the former champion rose to his feet on unsteady legs. Wasting no time, Coetzee blasted another right hand into Leon’s jaw and as Leon hung in the air, fighting gravity, he crashed another monster right into the side of his head, sending the Missouri native into the ropes where he hung between the strands like a broken marionette. It was over.
Two days after the “Easton Assassin” defended his version of the Championship, “The Bionic Fist” was raised in triumph in Monte Carlo as the drama of the post-Ali Era heated up another notch.
Gerrie Coetzee, “Little Sore Hands,” was going to be the first African to fight for a version of the World Heavyweight Championship. “Big” John Tate waited in the wings.
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