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Miguel Cotto.Comment
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I've heard Roberto Duran could get pretty ****ing dirty when he wanted to.Comment
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Fritzie Zivic, possibly the most dirty fighter of all-time. A description of his first fight with Armstrong:
For the first eight months of 1940, Zivic continued his astonishing work rate and fought thirteen times. Assisted by Carney's adroit management skills, Zivic was promised a title shot against Henry Armstrong later that year if he defeated future lightweight champion Sammy Angott. Zivic prevailed in a ten round decision over Angott on August 28, and signed to meet the great Henry Armstrong on October 4 at Madison Square Garden.
At the time of the Armstrong fight, Zivic was a 4-1 underdog (some report the odds were as high as 6-1). Zivic later claimed that even his friends and associates doubted his chances, and when talking to fans and friends before the fight, most quietly implored Zivic just not to get hurt.
To be sure, Armstrong, the only man to hold three belts in three different weight classes simultaneously, peaked as a fighter between 1937-1938. Armstrong unified the featherweight title in 1937 by stopping Petey Sarron in six rounds. In 1938, he defeated Barney Ross for the welterweight title, and unseated Lou Ambers for the lightweight title in his next bout. In the same year, Armstrong stopped Zivic's brother, Eddie, in four rounds.
Armstrong lost his lightweight title to Lou Ambers in 1939 (Zivic broke Ambers' jaw in a 1935 decision loss), and was starting to exhibit signs of wear and tear. Nevertheless, after losing to Ambers, Armstrong defended his welterweight title thirteen times (12 KOs) in roughly twelve months while mixing in a draw with middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia. It was only natural that Armstrong's championship experience and freakish stamina were expected to be too much for a journeyman-status fighter like Zivic.
4 (5K)Zivic - Armstrong 1 turned out to be one of the most ruthless fights in welterweight title fight history. Armstrong took command immediately in the early rounds by landing relentless volleys from all angles. At times, it appeared that Zivic might end up as another stoppage victim. As Timpav described, Zivic himself later admitted that at one point before the seventh round, he thought the odds might've been more appropriately placed at 40-1 instead of 4-1.
Armstrong was definitely dominant, but also dirty. He hit Zivic below the belt, butted him, slammed him with his elbows, and never let up. Fritzie, regarded as the dirtier fighter, began to retaliate. As both men traded fouls in the seventh round, referee Arthur Donovan reportedly told both fighters that if they wanted to fight dirty, it was fine with him. Donovan's surprisingly lack of intervention signaled a major turning point in the fight, as well as a major turning point in the annals of welterweight championship history.
Around the time of Fritzie's retirement during the latter part of the 1940s, Red Smith authored a famous piece about Zivic entitled, "The Nose" (Smith's classic piece can be found in W.C. Heinz's The Fireside Book of Boxing). Zivic had the prototypical pug's nose, and could push it completely in after years of abuse. Zivic told Smith about the first Armstrong fight, and related one of his motivations for the bout.
Zivic tells the story that on the day of the fight he visited a Cadillac dealership, and searched for the perfect car in anticipation of winning the fight despite what friends and critics predicted. Zivic conveyed that in the early rounds of the Armstrong fight, he could see that Cadillac rolling farther and farther away. When Donovan gave Fritzie the go ahead in the seventh round, everything changed.
"That night Henry's givin' it to me pretty good and I can see that Cadillac rollin' farther and farther away from me. Henry's givin' me the elbows and the shoulders and the top of the head, and I can give that stuff back pretty good, but I don't dare to or maybe they'll throw me out of the ring."
Zivic continues his story of the bout.
"Well, in the seventh round I give him the head a couple of times and choke him a couple of times and use the elbow some, and the referee says: 'If you guys want to fight that way, it's okay with me.' 'Hot damn!' I told Luke Carney in my corner. 'Watch me go now.' And from then out I saw that Cadillac turn around and come rollin' back."
The 5'10" Zivic went to work on the 5'5 1/2" Armstrong like a surgeon for the remainder of the bout. With almost 130 fights on his resume, Zivic was cold and calculating as he picked Armstrong apart. Zivic was masterful in landing his potent right hand, short and powerful uppercuts, and a scalpel-like jab.
Compounded by illegal tactics, Zivic cut both of Armstrong's eyes badly, and cut his mouth open in the thirteenth round. Zivic, who proclaimed himself to be a "gentlemanly" dirty fighter, said "pardon me" several times as he fouled Armstrong mercilessly. At one point in the foul-infested fourteenth round, Zivic said Armstrong, now in a near helpless state, summoned the strength to grab Zivic, and strongly urged, "Fritzie, will you please cut out that pardon me and quit butting me?"
Because of Armstrong's mastery early in the fight, the scorecards were close going into the fifteenth round. Zivic was in charge, but tired as well, and wanted to close the show. Timpav quotes Zivic's description of the action in the final round.
"As the 15th round started, the Cadillac was backing up in my driveway. And for the first time, in the 15th round I happened to glance up at the clock in the Garden, which tells you how old a round is. Looking at it, it seems there was only about 15 seconds to go to finish the fight."
"Where I got my extra stamina from I'll never know. But maybe thinking about that Cadillac in my garage, and wanting to keep it there, I tore loose with both hands and hit him with a left hook and a right cross on the side of the head. As he went down, the bell rang ending the fight."
The scorecards were close, but Zivic won a unanimous decision. Zivic, just a few years removed from a near fatal bout with pneumonia and a prohibitive underdog, beat the odds and halted one of the greatest reigns in welterweight history. The normally affable and unaffected Zivic broke down in tears after the fight. In Timpav's book, Zivic intimated that he thought of his dead father, and credited much of his win to his brother Jack, who provided Fritzie with the life saving blood transfusion when he contracted pneumonia.
Dirty by reputation, dirty by self-assessment. Good read though.Comment
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Two of the dirtiest fighters who ever lived, the lightweight champion Sammy Angott vs the welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic!
Angott's hit & hold tactics led to his win over an undefeated Willie Pep, a feat Saddler repeated years later.
It's hard to see what's going on, but Angott is the shorter man who fights like John Ruiz while Zivic is the taller one and does most of the punching.Last edited by TheGreatA; 07-24-2008, 01:55 PM.Comment
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