Still cant understand why the 80's heavyweights are considered bad ,it was actually highly competitive with many great fights and fighters .

I thought a draw was a fair enough verdict. I'm not sure if Thomas is still around but Coetzee passed away last week Thursday at the age of 67. He was considered by many boxing experts to have put South Africa on the boxing map after his defeat of Michael Dokes back in 1983 where he captured the WBA heavyweight title. Of course, he went on to lose that title to Greg Page not long after that and then Frank Bruno blew him away in one round in 1986 and that was basically the end of Gerrie's career at just 31 years of age. He did fight twice more, winning a bout in 1993, but then losing to Iran Barkley in a 1997 contest for an obscure version of the heavyweight championship. Going in with Barkley at the age of 42 was not a very good idea for a fighter who had been knocked cold by Bruno 11 years prior. Gerrie should have retired for good after that loss. He was clearly a spent force by that stage of his career.

Thomas was one tough guy .That 20 punch combination he took was brutal from a prime Tyson .Lesser chins would be down in 2 or 3 clean punches from Tyson never mind 10 or 15 or 20 and he got up with in the 10 count .

Coetzee was a legitimate world class heavyweight, he was no token white hope. He was a threat to and could hang with any of the top black heavyweights of 80s, including Holmes.

Good fight. Two gentlemen and great fighters

When motivated & clean Thomas one heck of a boxer 🥊

Man! How I miss the 1980s and Gil Clancy.

Coetzee beat a lot of top ranked fighters, but lost the big ones. There is a fine line between very good and great.

Always wondered who would have won between Coetzee vs Cooney 🥊. That would have been a good solid fight .

I approached Gerrie at Sun City for the Greg Page fight as a kid.He was busy attacking a huge pyramid of ice cream balls and wrote me a little note and signed it.He was a lovely bloke as many boxers are.I saw him again in my home town holding up a marlin and loads of people kept driving past requesting pictures and you could see he was looking a bit knackered holding up the big fish for the pictures but was too nice to tell them to piss off.

Good Tough Fight.

Thomas was afraid that if he threw the jab, Coetzee would time him with a right hand. There was so much hype about Coetzee's 'bionic hand' at one time. In the fifth, you see Coetzee go for it anyway.

Interesting how the 3 main white heavyweight contenders of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, all had very similar first names. Jerry, Gerry and Gerrie

I remember when this fight was scheduled; you had Coetzee who was the number 1 contender against Thomas who just came off a huge win over the then highly regarded Quick Tillis. Neither of these guys needed this fight and it was considered extremely dangerous for both. A draw was highly controversial since it did no damage to their careers and promoters could still market each man in a positive way. I watched it then and gave Thomas the slightest of edges but felt the promoter was the real winner.

It was a great win for Frank Bruno to knock a guy rhat Coetzee in the firsr round .He deserved that title shot againest Witherspoon .

Draw was ok but Thomas was better fighter

Good Fight!🥊

I guess a draw is fair in such a close fight, but I hate draws. Slight edge to Coetzee.

Draw a fair result. Quite a difficult fight to score because of the similar styles, and neither fighter able to create dominance with the jab. I scored it 96-96 on the 10 point system. Coetzee built up a 3 point lead through the early and mid rounds. Thomas lacked aggression and didn't throw enough punches. But Thomas came back strongly to win 7, 8 and 9. Last round even...96 - 96.

That was a good fight. I'd judge it a draw too.

Good azz fight""""

I think a draw was a fair decision, I remember watching this fight live. Gerrie had something like 25 operations on that right hand, in this fight I still don't think he cut loose with the right------ RIP Gerrie.

Gerrie won by a slight margin

Pinklon sounds punchy here when he talks to me

Somebody tell Thomas everything works off the jab jab right cross left hook basics

Coetzee had the edge, It was a draw based on Thomas home ground, if itnwas in SA Gerrie would have won and secondly he as robbed coz of the anti apartheid stance.. Disgusting that politics ruin sports, the commentator even highlighted that WBC refused to recognize SA

These heavyweights had skill artistry could go toe to toe even with the sagar ray leonards most was brave and even those that was known as knock out punches the best ones would learn you have to fight get hit not just count on speed or flash mamhamad Ali wouldn't just go on speed he was smart Holmes was a fighter he had power but he would fight his heart out George formen earlmnie shaver there's more these fighters now days count on not getting hit just counting on speed and power and the old heavyweights went anywhere and fought anybody they didn't have fancy machines then even if you don't like them you got to give them credit the best heavyweights of the 1990s learn from these older heavyweights Mike Tyson david tau we learned how much of a warrior Mike was when he couldn't get so many knockouts these fighter are different now only a few I can say are as good and have the heart most of these fighter won't last as long only a few rememberd

Thomas why u waiting posing u didn't fight Tillis like that

Thomas won.

Coetzee punching bag with arms he's moving the same way

two fights i wish but never happened ,who wins ,holmes vs coetzee and cooney vs coetzee,who wins?

Two warrions.

Gerrie coetzee whas robbed

These fights in NJ just didn't have the same atmosphere as Las Vegas, did they?

Thomas won the fight

Some of u were lucky coetzee fight most of the time with broken hands

Thomas nearly looked like Norton.(2021.12.10-23:11-socalled South Africa)

Pinky won that fight hands down!

ничья согласен)))это тот из боев где можно сказать ничья)))не было и там и там чего-то выделяющегося)

Thomas won this fight ain’t no way this fight should end up a draw