Daniel Bekker

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

Amateur

Daan Bekker won as an amateur six times the South African Championships in the heavyweight (1955-1959, 1961). In 1956 he took part in the Olympic Games in Melbourne. He won there in the quarterfinals by a knockout in the first round over Jose Giorgetti from Argentina. In the semifinals, he managed to achieve against the Americans Pete Rademacher in the first round a rainfall, yet 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 to victories over Stan Renaud from Canada, Gbadegesin Salawu from Nigeria and the British David Thomas.

In his second Olympic Games, in Rome in 1960, he won the silver medal. He defeated there in the second round to Poland Władysław Jędrzejewski by technical knockout in the second round, in the quarterfinals the Yugoslavs Obrad Sretenović by knockout in the first round and the semi-finals of the representatives of the All-German Olympic Team Gunther Siegmund on points. In the final, but he had no chance against the Italians Franco De Piccoli and lost by knockout in the second round.

Professional

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

Bekker died on 22 October 2009 in Pretoria at the age of 77 years from the effects of long-term Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.