Fritzie Zivic vs Sugar Ray Leonard

Leonard hits him at will, schools him and stops him.

 

Hi Buddy.
Interesting pairing, not sure I have seen this before, agreed the best of Zivic was a formidable fighter, besting albeit a ring worn Armstrong was indeed a feat, which many couldn't undertake, but crucial in those wins, and probably scores more, was Zivic employing his dastardly infighting skill, Zivic and earlier Ambers to a degree, realised the tactics to beat Henry were not box, and not to rely on single punches, it was to in fight the threshing machine that was Henry at his best, stay close deny him room to unleash his leaping left hook, stay on his stomach and unload your own uppercuts on to the rushing Armstrong, these were not meant for the KO or stoppage rather to cut and raise bruises, by the time of the Ziviz fight Henry's propensity to cut, and his countenance swell were on the increase, where by Leonard would not be the stationary target that Armstrong was, I would imagine he would, much like he did in Duran 2 , stay at a distance, whilst whipping in hard and accurate uppercuts combined with salvos of hooks, Zivic was a tough dude who regularly took on and beat world class MWs, Leonard would hold no fears for him for sure, but my estimation would be a wide UD, or just maybe a late stoppage were it a 15 rounder, mind you it as all the hallmarks of a very torrid battle.
stay safe FT, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Love Zivic, he was a street fighter. But lets be honest here. Since Ray matches him in the strength and toughness dept, , SRL would noticeably outclass him. Maybe even to the point where Fritzie gets so frustrated he might just KO the ref for shites and giggles.

 

Robinson didn't outclass him. Many people felt that Zivic did enough body work to at least draw with Robinson, and they were rematched.

 

When you read about Zivic, you read about a very versatile fighter. He won fights with his jab, his right hand, with body work, with uppercuts inside, and he could win by being the aggressor, or by countering. He had 2 fights with Robinson and was not outclassed in either of them.Hefought Charly Burley 3 times.He fought LaMotta close in all but their last fight while being much smaller. It is safe to say that Leonard would not bring him anything that he hadn't seen before or that he wasn't prepared to deal with.
On the other hand Leonard would be fighting a guy that legends like Conn, Robinson, and Armstrong called the smartest man they ever faced. I would suggest that the only fighter that Leonard faced that was crafty like that was Duran.
Ray Leonard may well win this fight- he was a very good fighter and, at his best, he didn't like to lose. But people get blinded by the Hearns fight and you need to put that in perspective; Hearns was tall and rangy and had a big right hand but he didn't have many rounds and fought scared most of the fight. And they are blinded by the Benitez fight which, in my opinion, was not a great fight or even all that good of a fight because Benitez offered him nothing offensively.
Ray can win this fight but it is far from a certainty. I imagine that they would end up fighting more than once. Zivic would win at least one.

 

Zivic lost to the first Sugar Ray, the second was equally a beautiful Boxer too. Tall, tough and strong, for me it gets down to Stature here, Leonard too Big & Skilful for Zivic.

the fight of the decade for me would have been Zivic verse Britain's most prolific Welterweight, a beautiful Boxer, tough, durable and equal size too, Zivic verse Ernie Roderick. That fight I believe would have filled the Gardens.

 

Prepare to be showered with tomato’s per your comments on Hearns and Benitez… “El Radar” isn’t “Napoles like” like we are told lol more “Ali like” he put himself out of range to punch, didn’t punch with you, he just took turns most of the time from memory. Could you elaborate on Hearns fighting scared?

 

Hearns was definitely overconfident for this fight thinking he was going to KO Ray . I wouldn't use the word scared, but maybe late it turned into that when he was gassed and hurt as he never went that distance before, but Tommy was ahead in the fight late

 

I wouldn't bank on that,

Roderick was 1 of ONLY 4 fighters who took Henry Armstrong the distance during Hank's 3 World Title-ship reign, Roderick was Welterweight boss of Britain & Europe, second to Cerdan and Roderick gave weight to many good Middleweight too.

You are making the mistake of 'automatically' negating British & European fighters, which really stemmed from failing Big Men in American rings, and I agree generally speaking...

but the absolute Top Men among them were as good as any of their peers worldwide.

Zivic vs Roderick would have been a great fight!

 

Hi Buddy.
You make a valid point, as you do in your all of your post, I have come to realise you are a learned and knowledgeable fight historian, whose prowse is intelligent and noteworthy, as to Roderick I am in full agreement, he was a most rugged and determined boxer, who could both punch and box, physically he looked strong, strong of leg and a thick sturdy chest, most imposing, as to his championship fight with Armstrong the great and underrated Peter Wilson wrote a piece about the preparation and eventual fight, with your permission I will from memory recite some of his musings, " We, over here in England had heard plenty about this freakish phoeneom named Armstrong, tales of his inhuman stamina, his non stop workrate, pretty much how invinceable he was, we were not impressed, on the day after he arrived on our shores, I took a train down to the seaside resort of Clacton where he had set up his training camp, he skipped hit the heavy bag, for longer than I had seen a fighter do in the past, then came the main event the sparring, suffice it to say I have witnessed many a fighter spar, but I was unprepared for what was about to come, he entered the ring sweating profusely, when I say entered what he did in fact was run, yes run from the shed where his did his skipping etc, he had four hired hands at the ready, the first was a small, stocky, fighter from the south, once the bell rang, Armstrong was across the ring in a second, for most of the 3 minutes he punched and mauled the poor chap all over the ring, not for second did the torture subside, after the bell Armstrong would stand in his corner, straining at the leash for the next round to start, he did much the same to all the partners, over 15 rounds, without any disenable fatigue , now we were impressed, as to the fight, Roderick fought a magnificent battle, time and again he tried to fend off the on rushing Armstrong, all to no avail, he was battered from post post, if you can imagine a small boat in a storm ridden sea, I was impressed, doubtful the boxing world will ever see such a fighter in a long long time"
stay safe thistle, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Leonard would outpoint him, probably but he ain't stopping Zivic with a hammer. You need to take a peek at who Zivic beat and who he went the distance with. Leonard better have a good ref or Fritzie will mug him like he was in an alley,,,,cause if this was in an alley I got Fritzie by KO.