Looking through the annals of South African heavyweight boxing since James Robertson Couper was reported as the first claimant of the South African heavyweight title after beating Joe Coverwell in 1884, there is possible no more foul filled contest than the first fight between Gerrie Coetzee and Mike Schutte on 16 August 1976 at the Westridge Tennis Stadium in Durban, before a crowd of 11,000.
One journalist wrote “Boxing can do without fights like the Schutte-Coetzee confrontation. “Fight” did I say? This was no fight; it was a shameful brawl and a disgrace to the sport.
Schutte the champion already had 38 fights and the lesser experienced Coetzee who was only having his thirteenth fight, and many critics considered this too soon for Coetzee.
With frantic last-minute instruction being shouted at him.
When the slim Coetzee got into the ring, he was full of energy as he bounced around the ring and his father Flip had a hard job getting the water bottle into his son’s mouth. The champion Schutte with Alan Toweel senior in his corner was calm and collected.
At the first bell Coetzee came out fast with Schutte moving slowly out of his corner with his hands low when the challenger struck first with a right cross to send Schutte down.
Mike was knocked down three times in the first round and it looked all over for the champion.
In the second round the 21-year-old challenger sent Schutte crashing to the canvas with a right hand to the jaw for an eight count.
It appeared like it was all over for Schutte but then in round three the fight degenerated in a back-alley brawl with both butting, tripping, and wrestling each other.
The much smaller man, referee Bobby Mazzoni battled to prise the fighters apart as continually threatened that he would throw them both out of ring.
Schutte did enough to take the fourth round as he dropped Coetzee with a round house swing for the mandatory eight count.
Coetzee attacked in the fifth round but in the sixth Schutte tore into Coetzee only to be stopped in his tracks with a ramrod left. The infuriated Schutte rushed into Coetzee who slipped down to the canvas and as rolled over he was kicked by the champion.
When Coetzee arose from the canvas Schutte grabbed him under the armpits and tried to throw him out of the ring. There were kicks and butting and the fight was out of control as the referee disqualified the champion to deprive him of his title.
There was much debate after the bout, and some said that fight should not have been stopped.
Alan Toweel said the fight should have been declared a no contest as did Maurice Toweel.
Flip Coetzee said there would be no return fight as anyone could see who the better fighter was.
How wrong could he be as on 16 April 1977 at the Wembley Stadium in Johannesburg Coetzee showed tremendous courage in outpointing Schutte over 12 rounds to retain the title.
The 22 000 people in attendance did not realize that Coetzee was fighting with both hands broken from the second round. In a reasonably clean fight Stanley Christodoulou was the referee.
Coetzee would go on to win the WBA heavyweight title and finish with a record of 38-9-2; and have a strong claim to being the number one South African heavyweight of all time.
Schutte ended up with a creditable record of 38-9-2; 28.
Mike passed away on 14 July 2008.