Willie de Wit boxer

Willie de Wit boxer
bouts
22
won
20
lost
1
draw
1
Status
inactive
Division
heavyweight
Debut
1984-12-01
Height
6′ 2½″/189cm
Reach
-
Age
-
Born
1961-06-13
Death
-
Nationality
Canada

William Theodore deWit, Q.C. (born June 13, 1961) is a Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta sitting in Calgary since 2017. Previously, he was a criminal defence lawyer and a professional boxer. He represented Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the heavyweight division. DeWit and teammate Shawn O'Sullivan were heavily touted going into the Games, as both had won the world championship.DeWit played football in high school and was an all-star quarterback. He was offered a scholarship to the University of Alberta, but decided to quit football after he began learning how to box at a Grande Prairie health club which was run by a man named Jim Murrie. Impressed with his dedication and size, Murrie introduced deWit to Dr. Harry Snatic, a dentist and rancher who had been a youth boxing coach in Louisiana before moving his family in 1971 to Beaverlodge, a small town near Grande Prairie. He worked out with deWit three times a week, first in the health club, and then in the deWit's unheated garage where temperatures would often get to 10 or 20 degrees below zero.DeWit's first fight came at the Alberta provincial championships in March of 1979 in Medicine Hat. Snatic entered deWit in the light heavyweight intermediate novice division for boxers age 17 to 20 with less than 10 fights. DeWit knocked out his first opponent in 20 seconds which caused the coaches of the six other fighters in the division to pull their fighters. DeWit had won his first championship. Snatic then entered Willie in the British Columbia Golden Gloves championships where he fought 18-year-old Shane Anderson who was the western Canadian 178-pound champion and a veteran of about 40 fights. DeWit lost by decision, but he did beat Anderson in two of three return matches. In the last of those bouts, deWit knocked out Anderson, who never fought again.Snatic then took Willie to fight at the Washington State Penitentiary where he knocked out his opponent in the opening minute of the first round. Afterwards in April 1982, Snatic decided to sell his ranch and moved to Calgary. deWit went with him in order to find sparring partners, and to train with a Ugandan exile named Mansoor Esmail, who was Calgary's top boxing coach, and was considered a physical conditioning genius.Willie's first major victory came in Las Vegas in June 1982 when he knocked out Cuba's Pedro Cardenas to win his first North American title. Then he won gold at the Commonwealth Games, taking him a total of three minutes and 12 seconds to knock out three opponents. In March 1983 he defeated Alexander Yagubkin of the U.S.S.R. to win the world title. Then, in September 1983 he defended his North American title against highly touted Cuban Aurelio Toyo.Leading up to the 1984 Olympics, a benefit in Calgary featuring boxing fan Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett raised $70,000 to finance Willie's training. At this point Snatic began importing professional sparring partners from the United States.

Date Opponent Last Opponents' Results Place Result
1988-03-29 Henry Tillman WLWWWL Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton WIN
Unanimous decision
1988-02-20 Tony Morrison DWWWLW Centre 200, Sydney WIN
Unanimous decision
1987-10-03 Donnie Long LWLLLL Grande Prairie WIN
Corner retirement
1987-08-24 Ken Lakusta LWLWLL Northlands Agricom, Edmonton WIN
KO
1987-05-21 Terry Mims WLWLLL Arco Arena, Sacramento WIN
KO
1987-02-14 Bert Cooper LWWWWW Regina Agridome, Regina LOST
Technical knockout
1986-12-13 Lorenzo Canady LDWWWL Regina Agridome, Regina WIN
Technical knockout
1986-11-10 Conroy Nelson WWLLLW Halifax Metro Centre, Halifax WIN
Technical knockout
1986-09-30 Andrew Stokes WDLWWL Agridome, Edmonton WIN
Unanimous decision
1986-06-14 Ken Lakusta LLLWLW Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton WIN
Unanimous decision
1986-05-03 Mike Acey WWWWWW Regina Agridome, Regina WIN
Technical knockout
1986-03-20 Jeff Jordan WLWLWL Stampede Corral, Calgary WIN
Corner retirement
1986-02-03 George Graham WWWWWW Northlands Agricom, Edmonton WIN
Technical knockout
1985-12-13 Scott Wheaton WWWWWD Corral Sports Arena, Calgary WIN
Unanimous decision
1985-10-03 Otis Bates LWWLLL City Coliseum, Austin WIN
KO
1985-09-11 Marion Bridges DWWW Trump Casino Hotel, Atlantic City WIN
Technical knockout
1985-07-11 Earl Lewis WWWWWL Trump Casino Hotel, Atlantic City WIN
Technical knockout
1985-06-05 Sterling Benjamin DWLLLL Resorts International, Atlantic City WIN
Unanimous decision
1985-04-15 Alex Williamson WWWWDL Caesars Palace, Outdoor Arena, Las Vegas DRAW
Points
1985-03-05 Tony Pulu WLLLLL Dallas Convention Center, Dallas WIN
KO
1985-01-24 Inoke Katoa WLW Showboat Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas WIN
Technical knockout
1984-12-01 Walter Morris LL Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton WIN
Technical knockout