Johnny van Rensburg

South African boxer

Born

9 May 1932, Lichtenburg

Died

28 October 2010, Roodepoort

Citizenship

South Africa

Sport

boxing

Discipline

middleweight, welterweight, light welterweight, lightweight

Occupation

boxer

Johnny "Smiler" van Rensburg (9 May 1932 – 28 October 2010 (aged 78)) born in Lichtenburg was a South African amateur bantamweight and professional light/light welter/welter/middleweight boxer of the 1950s and '60s who as an amateur won the gold medal at bantamweight in the Boxing at the 1950 British Empire Games in Auckland, New Zealand, and represented South Africa at bantamweight in the Boxing at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, losing to Amé rico Bonetti of Argentina, and as a professional won the Transvaal (South Africa) (White) lightweight title, South African lightweight title, South African welterweight title, British Empire lightweight title, and British Empire welterweight title, his professional fighting weight varied from 132 lb (60 kg; 9 st 6 lb), i.e. lightweight to 148 lb (67 kg; 10 st 8 lb), i.e. Middleweight, he died in Roodepoort, South Africa.

Competitions

External links

• Wikipedia
• BoxRec
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q16018939 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.