Ringside Report Looks Back at Heavyweight Mike Koranicki

[AdSense-A]

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

In 1972 on Miami Beach, Larry McGee was to be his first stoppage victim. McGee did not manage to get beyond the first round before heavyweight Mike Koranicki, 27-9-2 15 KO’s, had made his successful debut. For just over the next 12 months, Miami Beach was to be his natural home for fights as he managed a further 9 wins – 6 by way of knockout. It was an impressive start and Koranicki must have felt that the future was looking up and he was on his way.
One more fight – yet another knockout, this time against Reggie Fleming and he was ready for New York…

It was not a great arrival as he went down to Rochell Norris in a points loss over 6 rounds. What to do? Back to Miami and get a decent win under his belt before back on his travels – this time to Washington where a cut eye stopped him in the 7th round. It was a second loss, halted by John Berry.

Koranicki bounced back with wins over Harold Carter and Joe Gholsten. Before going on a bit of an Odyssey with losing a decision to Wendell Bailey before drawing in a second fight with Gholsten.

This time though life on the road must have suited him as he started to wander through the 1970’s. stopping at Baltimore, Philly, Allentown, and Rochester next until back to Miami, after Koranicki was amassing a decent set of results – not always wins – across his traveling.
It was now 1977 and things just needed to get a little more serious, he was searching for some kind of belt, fame and certainly fortune. He got busy. 7 fights in 77, saw him in Rochester, Fort Worth, Newark, Philly, Richmond and then in Palm Springs. Unfortunately, it was not 7 wins but there were no losses. His final fight in the year was a bizarre draw where one referee scored it as a draw whilst the other two were completely split. One gave it to Koranicki by a wide margin, the other gave it to his opponent, unbeaten Fili Moala by an even wider margin!
With only a keep busy fight in 1978, he was perhaps not quite ready for his next challenge…

Once again travel continued to be a bit of a thing for him as he came across to London and fought our very own John L Gardner in the iconic Royal Albert Hall in February of 1979. Koranicki suffered a cut eyebrow and the fight was halted in the 9th of 10 rounds. It was, once again a stop to his progress. Coming back to the US was no picnic either as he picked up another loss when he took on George Chaplin in May of the same year in Baltimore.
Then came South Africa.
Koranicki got his chance by coming to South Africa and on December the 19th 1980, he appeared in Cape Town, South Africa to take on Kallie Knoetze. A little known and much ignored fight by some, his appearance against Kallie Knoetze got him a shot at Gerrie Coetzee because as the underdog he upset everyone by winning! He stopped Knoetze in the tenth round, beating Knoetze with the long game – an 11th round stoppage that came as he was losing convincingly on points. He was now thrust into world rankings; next up was to be Gerrie Coetzee.
Coetzee was one of the best heavyweights of his time and he scored a first round knockout. Four months later it was off to Chicago where he was to take on James “Quick” Tillis. It was a clear mismatch and Tillis totally out boxed Mike over ten rounds. Koranicki would never be mentioned as a contender again. Coetzee was looking to get his name more often mentioned after he had lost the WBA title fight to John Tate.

Koranicki kept faith in South Africa and remained there for some time to come as he finished his career fighting in Durban, Johannesburg and Welkom as he spent 3 years and 7 fights finishing off a career that nearly took off but never really made it beyond being on the fringes. 1983 was when he stopped but as with most fighters, the memories were writ large and we love to reminisce. South African boxing perhaps have not matched the memories of late but if they wish to look anywhere for inspiration then Koranicki and his contemporaries are pretty more than decent standard to which to aspire.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]