Gerrie Coetzee spoils the homecoming

Michael Dokes had not lost a professional fight. He was 25, 26–0–2, and the WBA heavyweight champion, a title he had won in December 1982 when the referee stopped his fight with Mike Weaver in the first round. Weaver's camp protested that it had been stopped far too early, and the rematch in May 1983 ended in a draw. Dokes kept the belt.

The fight was at the Richfield Coliseum in Ohio, near Dokes's home city of Akron. His challenger was Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa, 28 years old and 28–3–1. Coetzee had been here before, twice. In 1979 he lost a 15-round decision to John Tate at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, a fight that was the first time Black spectators had been allowed into the stadium. In 1980 he fought Weaver at Sun City, controlled the early rounds, faded, and was stopped in the 13th.

Coetzee was also openly opposed to apartheid.

Two entrances

The contrast began before the first bell. Dokes came into the ring throwing flowers and blowing kisses to the women in the crowd. Coetzee walked in in what one account called the more traditional style.

In the early rounds Dokes's hand speed was the difference. He was the quicker man and he was winning.

The right hand

In the fifth Coetzee found the punch that would decide the fight. A right hand to the jaw put Dokes down on one knee. He got up, and the fight went on.

In the tenth he did it again, and this time he did not let go. He pinned Dokes against the ropes and kept throwing right hands. One more hard right put Dokes on the canvas, and he could not get up. He had been behind on all three scorecards.

The cost

Gerrie Coetzee was world heavyweight champion, the first African to hold the title. He had also broken his right hand with the punch that won it. Five days later he was having surgery in New York, and he did not fight again for a year and two months. The hand became a recurring problem; he was nicknamed the "bionic hand" for the surgery that held it together.

A unification fight with Larry Holmes fell through. When Coetzee did return, it was to defend the title against Greg Page at Sun City in December 1984, and he lost it in the eighth round, in a round that was said to have run too long.

Dokes's later career was troubled by drugs. He died in 2012. Coetzee died in January 2023, aged 67.

For one night in Ohio, though, the South African who had failed twice finally got it right, and the champion who had made the grand entrance was the one left on the floor.