More than 130 South African boxers have held world championships, however solely four heavyweights from our nation have captured a globally sanctioned strap.
South Africans have been amongst the greats to be heavyweight champion of the world.
South Africa’s four heavyweight champions of the world
1 Gerrie Coetzee (WBA Champion 23 September 1983 – 1 December 1984)
In 1983, Gerrie Coetzee became the first South African to win a Heavyweight title in what was his fourth title combat.
Coetzee was not anticipated to get one over on the Don King-Promoted Michael Dokes, however he dominated the combat earlier than scoring a tenth-round knockout.
The knockout punch might need dealt extra harm to Coetzee than to Dokes with the South African bruiser requiring surgical procedure and battling the injured hand for years.
Coetzee misplaced the title in a controversial knockout defeat to Gary Page at Sun City a yr later.
2 Corrie Sanders (WBU Champion 15 November 1997 – 20 May 2000) and (WBO Champion 8 March 2003 – December 2003)
Sanders is the only South African heavyweight to successfully defend his title on more than one occasion. He can also be the solely South African heavyweight to carry multiple world championship belt.
‘The Sniper’ received the WBO heavyweight title in 2003 after knocking out Wladimir Klitschko in two rounds, in an enormous upset. He would vacate the title in a bid to say the WBC title off of Vitali Klitschko however fell brief in his bid to be a triple world champion.
In 1997 he beat Ross Puritty at the Carousel Casino in Hammanskraal to win the WBU title which he defended in fights towards Bobby Czyz, Jorge Valdes and Al Cole earlier than dropping the belt to Hasim Rahman in Atlantic City in 2000.
3 Mike Bernardo (WBF Champion 12 May 2000 – May 2002)
Also a famend kickboxer Bernardo made his skilled boxing debut on 28 February 1993, towards countryman Delius Musemwa, scoring a second-round knockout.
Bernardo won the vacant WBF title against Dan Jerling by knocking out the Czechoslovakian fighter in the sixth spherical in Szekszárd, Hungary.
In his solely defence of the title, Bernardo knocked out American Peter McNeely in simply 41 seconds. The WBF stripped Bernado of the title for failure to defend the belt in May 2002.
4 Francois Botha (WBF Champion 6 February 2009 – 10 April 2010)
On 6 February 2009, Frans ‘The White Buffalo’ Botha beat Ron ‘Rocky’ Guerrero by unanimous determination to say the vacant WBF heavyweight title at the Tlokwe Banquet Hall in Potchefstroom.
Botha had returned to boxing two years earlier with a unanimous decision victory over Bob Mirovic.
It was the second time that Botha had received a world title combat however his victory in 1995 towards Germany’s Axel Schulz to win the IBF heavyweight Championship was declared a no-contest retrospectively after the fighter examined constructive for nandrolone.
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