Editing Gerrie Coetzee (section)

===Road to a third title bout===
Less than 5 months after the loss against Weaver, Coetzee returned to the ring and beat fringe contender [[George Chaplin (boxer)|George Chaplin]] before facing [[Renaldo Snipes]]. Coetzee dropped Snipes twice early and seemed to dominate the action. However, the fight was scored by rounds and not on points, meaning a round won widely with knockdowns was no more valued than a round lost narrowly, and he lost a ten-round decision that was deemed one of the worst of the decade.<ref>{{cite news|title=Witherspoon Defeats Snipes|first=Michael|last=Katz|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1982-06-06|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/06/sports/witherspoon-defeats-snipes.html|access-date=2019-07-11}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}

Coetzee had gone 5–1 in the 6 fights since the Weaver bout. Among the wins was one over former title challenger [[Scott Le Doux]] heading into a bout with the up-and-coming future WBC champion [[Pinklon Thomas]]. Again, Coetzee held the edge in the first half of the bout but Thomas rallied to hold Coetzee to a draw, although the result did work against either fighter.  Following his loss to Snipes and draw with Thomas, Coetzee was not considered a strong title contender, but he was still highly ranked.