Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Gerrie Coetzee Dies at Age 67

Former WBA heavyweight boxing champion Gerrie Coetzee died Thursday at the age of 67, his daughter said.

According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, the South Africa native who was nicknamed "The Boksburg Bomber" and "The Bionic Hand" died of cancer.

Coetzee went 33-6-1 during his professional career and is best known for beating Michael Dokes by 10th-round knockout in 1983 to win the WBA heavyweight title.

Coetzee made his pro boxing debut in 1974, winning each of his first 22 fights, including a first-round knockout of Leon Spinks in 1979. Just two fights earlier, Spinks had beaten Muhammad Ali for the WBA, WBC and The Ring heavyweight titles, although he dropped them back to Ali in their next encounter.

Fighting regularly until his retirement in 1986, Coetzee returned to the sport in 1993, fighting twice that year and then two more times in 1997 before retiring for good.

Coetzee fought many of the top fighters of the 1980s, including Dokes, Spinks, John Tate, Mike Weaver, Greg Page, James Tillis and Frank Bruno.

After losing WBA heavyweight title bouts against Tate and Weaver in 1979 and 1980, respectively, Coetzee finally reached the top of the heavyweight division with his win over Dokes in 1983.

Coetzee's title reign was short, though, as he dropped the WBA heavyweight championship to Page in his first defense in December 1984.

His final fight occurred in June 1997, when he lost to former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Iran Barkley by 10th-round technical knockout.

Per Iole, Coetzee was known for undergoing a remarkable 23 hand surgeries during his career, including one after breaking his right hand during the title win against Dokes.