Daan Bekker

Daan Bekker
Data
Birth Name	Daniel Wepener Bekker
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	South African
birthday	February 19, 1932
place of birth	Dordrecht (South Africa)
Date of death	October 22, 2009
Place of death	Pretoria
Combat Statistics
Struggles	9
Victories	6th
Knockout victories	4th
Defeats	2
draw	1

Daan Bekker (born February 19, 1932 in Dordrecht , † October 22, 2009 in Pretoria ) was a South African boxer .

amateur

Daan Bekker won the South African heavyweight championship six times as an amateur (1955-1959, 1961). In 1956 he took part in the Olympic Games in Melbourne . He won there in the quarterfinals by knockout in the first round over José Giorgetti from Argentina. In the semifinals he managed to get a knockdown against the American Pete Rademacher in the first round, but he lost the fight on points and thus won a bronze medal. In 1958, Bekker took first place at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff . He needed victories over Stan Renaud from Canada , Gbadegesin Salawu from Nigeria and the British David Thomas.

At his second Olympic Games, in Rome in 1960 , he won the silver medal . He defeated Poland Władysław Jędrzejewski in the second round by technical knockout in the second round, in the quarterfinals against the Yugoslav Obrad Sretenović by knockout in the first round and in the semifinals the representative of the all-German Olympic team Günther Siegmund on points. In the final he had no chance against the Italian Franco De Piccoli and lost by knockout in the second round.

professional

From November 1961 Daan Bekker began a short-term professional career, but had only modest success. In his third professional fight on March 17, 1962, he won the South African championship and defended it with a point win in June of the same year against Stoffel Willemse. In his second title defense on January 26, 1963, he met Willemse again and lost the title by knockout in the seventh round. This was also his last fight, Bekker ended his career after this defeat.

Bekker died on October 22, 2009 in Pretoria at the age of 77 as a result of longstanding Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases .

Web links

• Daan Bekker in the BoxRec database