Over the years South Africa has had several outstanding amateur fighters who have never been given the recognition they deserved.
One of the earliest outstanding amateurs who never turned pro was the southpaw Dennis Shepherd, who won a silver medal at the 1948 London Olympics in the featherweight division and also represented South Africa as a lightweight at the 1950 Empire Games held in Auckland, New Zealand where he lost his first fight.
Following Shepherd was Theuns (Theunis) van Schalkwyk, who won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1950 Auckland Empire Games and a silver medal as a light-middleweight at the 1952 Olympics losing to one of the amateur all-time greats Lazlo Papp of Hungary in the final.
Hennie Loubscher, who fought from the southpaw stance, was one of South Africa’s most outstanding amateurs, winning six South African amateur titles and a gold medal at the British Empire Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958, in the light-welterweight class.
At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics he won a bronze medal in the light-welterweight class.
Three-time South African amateur light-heavyweight champion Piet van Vuuren won a gold medal in the light-heavyweight class at the 1954 British and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada.
Originally known as the British Empire Games, there have been several changes to the name over the years:
1954 – Changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
1970 – Changed to British and Commonwealth Games.
1978 – Changed to Commonwealth Games.
Another great amateur was Grant Webster, who had a reported record of 240 wins and only eight losses and won six SA amateur titles from light-welterweight to welterweight and light-middleweight.
He took the gold medal in the light-middleweight division at the Cardiff Games in 1958 and represented South Africa at two Olympics.
At the 1952 Olympics he lost his third fight and in 1956 was eliminated after losing his first fight.
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Also, in the same class as Webster was Lennie Leisching who was an outstanding cricketer and footballer.
He represented South Africa as a featherweight at the Helsinki Olympics (1952), Melbourne Olympics (1956) and Vancouver British and Empire Games (1954), winning the gold medal in Vancouver and a bronze medal in Helsinki.
Ricky Knoesen won eight national titles in the bantamweight, featherweight, and lightweight divisions. He also toured with the Springbok team to Britain in 1966.
Another outstanding amateur was lightweight Harry Finlay, a four-time SA amateur champion (1958/62/63/64).
He was also a member of the multiracial team that competed in the USA Open Championships in 1963 and won the light-welterweight gold medal together with Lucas Matseke, who took the flyweight gold. Matseke would turn professional and go on to win the South African flyweight title.
Also, one of the finest amateurs was Herbie Vermeulen, who has a reported record of 232 wins and 11 defeats and won four South African amateur titles (1965/67/68/70) and fought mostly at light-welterweight.
Reg Gaskon, born in the then Rhodesia, won five SA titles (1960/62/64/65/67), two as a light-welterweight and three as a lightweight.
Finlay also won his Springbok colours for the 1966 tour of Britain.
There are several other outstanding fighters who never joined the professional ranks like Len Hall (welterweight gold Canada 1930), Japie Smit, Leon Weitz, Johannes “Johnny” van der Kolff (middleweight gold Canada 1954) and Jopie Greyling (welterweight gold –Cardiff 1958).
There might have been more outstanding amateurs who never joined the professional ranks had it not been for the government’s apartheid policies, which prevented talented black boxers from representing their country.
