Question for AlFrancis and Chinxkid (and nayone else whos Dad was a pro boxer)

You bring up a very interesting point there...not too many of us think of the hell a fighter's wife goes through. It must have been really tough on her, and you too.

 

He started at Welter, T, but then was a pretty true MW throughout. 158 to 160 seems to have been his ideal weight. Another thing about him that was day and night from LaMotta is he could eat whatever he wanted and never gain weight. He was still fight weight when he died at 59, even though he was forbidden to work out because of his eye. He still had the same muscles that he'd built in the ring. Flabby though they were, they were still there. I think he could have kicked my ass the day that he died; after the heart attack!

 

You know how you can repay me for making you laugh FOF?

VOTE IN MY TOURNAMENT!

Sorry, now back to the thread

 

So he had a good metabolism then, one that Jake would have killed for! I remember you said he admired the slicksters a lot, and if it wasn't for his arm he might have tried to take up such a style you think?

 

I don't want to derail this great thread...but honestly Teeto I don't know enough yet about some of those guys to comment. I did notice and read your threads, but I don't want to post a lot of crapola.

Back to topic...

 

No problem FOF.

 

Yeah, he was a dozen pro fights in, never fought amateur, before his mother found out about it. She had recently lost a daughter and really didn't need anything else to upset her. That was why he fought under the Zivic surname at first, that and I'd have to bet the mileage he could get out of that famous fight name. Fritzie owned his contract for the first half of his career. He hadn't met my mother, but he had a house full of sisters. Though they were pretty tough themselves, so I don't know how much it bothered them. The time and the place I guess.

 

What was the deal with Zivic owning guys' contracts? Was he half manager half fighter or something? Or was it after he retired? I know they say he got Burley's because he didn't want any more of him being in the opposite corner of the ring to him.

Was your dad a contemporary of Charley's Cinx? Era-wise.

 

He admired all these guys of course; thought Jake had the best hook in the division, Rocky a great right hand and he loved Graziano as a guy. One time Rocky Marciano called the house and talked to my mother. "You mean you don't know who this is?" He was teasing her as my dad had put him up to it, was standing just outside the phone booth the whole time. I know no fight fan would have missed the Rock's signature nasal voice tone. And of course, like everybody then and now he thought Robinson walked on water. I actually am looking at a shot of them together from about the early sixties. I'll try to link it it's a great one. Whether he would have been a slickster wtih two good arms I can't say for sure on that Teeto. I know he would have preferred not to have to always have to fight on the come. He used to speak of the "boxer-puncher" with true reverance. You could almost hear the choir singing. Took him a while to warm to Clay/Ali though, but that wasn't rare for the old timers. They hated the mouth and the bragging and the round calling stuff. But once he realized this guy could really fight it didn't bother him anymore. "It's ok," he'd say. "He backs it up."

 

That's another great post, thanks Chinx. Very nice story about The Rock.

 

That's what I'd always heard, that Burley was a sore spot. But Fritzie had a good sized stable towards the end of his ring career. My father fought from '44 through '51, so that would have his career overlapping with Burleys, and just like guys on this board he thought he was one of the greatest boxers he ever saw. He did mention that he thought Robinson wanted nothing to do with him. Burley, believe it or not was not permitted to train at the Lyceum with all the other greats. Father O'Connor enforced a strict "Whites Only" poilcy.

 

Whites only, that's really really ****, i know it was a different time, but that's ****.

 

This has been a really engaging and refreshing thread. More please.

 

Thanks Gp, for starting this thread. Always glad to talk about my favorite fighter. Just noticed that I didn't address your quesions directly. My dad had a bad eye from the time I was about seven years old and eventually lost it. His one great fear was to end up with a seeing-eye-dog, so no, we didn't box per se. But he taught me a lot. My dad had a bad right arm from a childhood injury, and it could only bend about six inches. How his right might have been had that not happened I never heard him talk about. I'd be about 12 or 13, starting to feel my oats, and he'd let me tee off on his belly, hard as a rock. He never wanted me to be a fighter, but he used to say with a laugh, "If I had your right hand I'd have been champion of the world!" Trying to make me feel good about myself of course, and it worked.

People, some guys treated me different, until they got to know me. They either treated me like I was a dangerous character, or they gave me **** to see if I would stand up for myself. I probably got into more fights than I should have because of it. But that stuff wears off sooner or later, once they knew that I was not the type to play it, in fact I underplayed it. My dad always taught me that a bully is just a coward's front. If anything I tried to avoid fights, if I could. Sometimes you can't, and just like I'd bet it is where you are, even all these years later, once people find out you take no **** and you give no ****, it gets a lot easier.

 

There really is so much to talk about with this guy. Not because he was a fighter, though there's no way I can separate the man from the sport, even though he was my dad. He was a guy who's heart was so big you thought it might bust out of his chest. When you sat next to him I swear you could feel his engine on fast idle, a guy who in a way never grew up, but in the best possible sense. Never lost his love of life, or his faith in miracles.