Willie Ludick, who reigned as the South African welterweight and middleweight champion between 1963 and 1968, died from cancer in Schweizer-Reneke in the North West on Tuesday. He was 62.
Ludick, who fought with the southpaw stance and was famous for his big left hand, won 34 professional fights against some of the toughest and the best fighters, while losing nine.
He twice boxed against the legendary Curtis Cokes — the first time for the world welterweight title — but was stopped on both occasions.
Ludick was eliminated from the Rome Olympics in 1960 by the Russian Vladimir Yengibaryan in the light welterweight division. He subsequently turned professional and won the vacant South African welterweight title in his seventh professional fight when he stopped Hansie ”Boerbul” du Plessis in the third round.
He beat Tony Smith, Jose Navarro, Ralph Dupas, Oscar Miranda, Tony Perez, Brian Curvis, Sammy McSpadden, Billy Collins, Stoffel Steyn, and Johnny Cooke before moving out of his division to fight as a middleweight. As a middleweight he suffered two successive losses, the first because of a badly cut nose against Ronnie van der Walt, and the second in a major upset by American Mike Pusateri in Cape Town.
The local rivalry between Ludick and Frazer Toweel went into six fights with the second being a walkover for Ludick. However, all of the other five bouts were classics, with Ludick the master every time.
After the loss to Pusateri, Ludick got his career back on track with a brutal 15 round points decision over the Frenchman Jean Josselin in a fight billed for the world welterweight title by promoter Dave Levin.
He beat Johnny Woods twice — the second time for the South African middleweight title.
Ludick, however, did not escape controversy, especially in two bouts against Italian Carmello Bossi, which were also for a version of the world welterweight title. He won both fights on disputed decisions.
These wins earned Ludick a crack at Cokes for the world welterweight title, but he was stopped by the champion in five rounds.
Ludick soldiered on, being stopped again by Cokes in Lourenco Marques –now Maputo — in a non-title fight.
With his boxing career on the decline he lost his welterweight title to Patrick Toweel and then lost the middleweight title when Pierre Fourie stopped him in the first round.
He continued to box but the spark was gone, losing to Domenico Tiberia in September 1969 and then in December of the same year he was beaten on points by Les McAteer.
At 28 he felt that he still had something left and challenged Pierre Fourie for the national middleweight title in February 1970 but was knocked out in the tenth round in his last fight.
He left the sport to join a church ministry where he remained until his death. – Sapa