Golden Gloves

One of South Africa’s longest serving boxing journalists, Pieter Pelser, died in Cape Town last night at the age of 54. Pelser, who spent most of his life in Pretoria, had been suffering from a heart condition since 2004. The Citizen newspaper’s boxing correspondent for many years, Pelser was a former amateur boxer himself and was included in my ‘Top 20 SA Boxing Writers’ resume in “No Punches Pulled” (1999). Pelser was a deeply religious, dedicated journalist who had a fine understanding of the sport and who can ever forget his unique sense of humour, like the time he said of former world heavyweight champion Leon Spinks; “The only guys who haven’t beaten him are the guys who haven’t fought him!”

More than most, Pelser had a great fundamental knowledge of the fears and regrets of the fighters themselves, and I happen to know, from our trips overseas, that he valued the time he spent with his family above all else.

At St Pete’s Beach, Florida, when Piet and I were there prior to flying to Connecticut for Corrie Sanders’ WBU heavyweight title bout with Bobby Cysz in 1998, he was moved to say, ” We’re just guests at a rich man’s party”, obviously alluding to all the stars we’d met in the week before the championship fight.

A teetotaler, Piet was amazed at the fact that I swam out to sea at 4 am in Florida, and when he discovered that there were no shark nets in the area, he laughingly remarked; “They (the sharks) probably thought you were a blonde-haired dolphin”.

A man with the courage of his convictions, Pelser became a bona fide boxing expert at a time when SA boxing needed him most, and his essays were always fair, interesting and unbiased.

No doubt the timekeeper in that ‘golden ring’ in the sky will keep that in mind, when Piet climbs through the ropes.

So long champ!