Gerrie Coetzee Vs. Michael Dokes - The Aftermath

The Aftermath

Coetzee broke his right hand with the same punch that he knocked Dokes out with. Five days later, he underwent surgery in New York City, after which he received a hero's welcome in Johannesburg.

He was not able to fight for a year and two months after winning the title. He was scheduled to have a unification bout with deposed WBC champion Holmes, who had been accepted as champion by the IBF after the WBC stripped him. The bout's particulars never came off due to JPD Sports, the backer of the bout, failing to deliver the money for the bout. Caesar's Palace stepped in to save the promotion, only to back out. Coetzee and Holmes both wanted the bout, with Coetzee even willing to relinquish the WBA title to have the bout come off. Don King's grip on Coetzee's management and promotion also was an impediment. Coetzee re-injured his right hand during training for the highly anticipated unification bout, forcing it to be cancelled. Holmes had been deposed by the WBC for failing to defend his title against Greg Page, who ultimately went on to beat Coetzee in Coetzee's first defense on December 1, 1984, by an eighth-round knockout to win the WBA world title. In what can perhaps be considered an irony, Coetzee did not win any of his three world title fights held at his home country, winning the only one that was held abroad.

Dokes also faced trouble after the fight, in his case, with drugs. He returned to boxing on March 1985, fighting Randall "Tex" Cobb in Las Vegas. Dokes had several comebacks, notably during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. His fight with contenderEvander Holyfield where he was stopped after 10 exciting rounds, was named by Ring Magazine as the "Best Heavyweight fight of the 1980s." In 1993, after having beaten a string of mostly fringe contenders, he received a shot at recovering the WBA title, (and gain the IBF world title on the process), but he was stopped in the first round by Riddick Bowe, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. In the interview immediately following the bout, Dokes protested the stoppage as being premature, and demanded a return match with Bowe. Dokes subsequently had run-ins with the law, and would ultimately succumb to liver cancer in August of 2012, dying the day after his 54th birthday.