What Happened to Armstrong against Zivic ?

Tommy Hearns and Iran Barkley - answer that one.

Regarding Armstrong and Zivic it was probably a combination of age, wear and tear and maybe just style of fighting. Sometimes a fighter just has the style to fustrate (Norton v Ali). Personally I think Armstrong had gone to the well too often and age/activity was starting to slow him down.

 

Yep it's Doug who posted as surfbat on here and other forums, Nice chap who sent me a couple of articles on a 1890's fighter I was looking into - https://www.wesa.fm/post/meet-man-w...ment-pittsburghs-rich-boxing-history#stream/0

 

Facing the right style ,I think Zivic was the kind of fighter who could take you apart

 

What little there is on film of Zivic I like. He looks like he could fit into any era. Zivic fought everybody white black blue brown it's all on his record. Tough as hell. Depending on what you read he either claims he broke the rules or says he was just rough and didnt. The peice from Hellers book is excellent. Cant believe there isnt a book on this guy. Pics of Armstrong after this fight are brutal what a beating he must have taken. Ultimately too inconsistent to be considered an ATG though. He claims to have over 300 fights also.

 

Zivic relished the underdog status. Zivic was a 5 - 1 underdog when he faced the hottest of prospects Billy Arnold. Arnold had won his first 16 fights by ko and was 31 - 0 28 ko when they met. Zivic won a MD.

 

Douglas is a good guy and runs a great Facebook page with daily updates. I share everything he does. He was supposed to be writing a book on the matter, but I haven't asked him for an update in awhile.

As someone already noted, Zivic was pretty skilled. The dirty stuff gets mentioned a lot, but when you take a fine-tooth comb to his career you see that it wasn't rough stuff that got him by or nearly by Billy Conn, Charley Burley, Jake LaMotta, Lou Ambers, Eddie Booker, etc.

 

As one tough, ring savvy fighter, Fritzie Zivic gave just about everyone that he fought a very tough time of it. But he was extremely inconsistent and lost to fighters he should have beaten. It was thought by some people that Zivic lost to certain fighters in order to create rematches, but I don't know if what those people say is true. In many of his losses, those fights often were very close and could have gone either way on the scorecards. Zivic had some very thrilling and memorable bouts, which may have been a good reason why he was a fine gate attraction at his peak. It also helped that Zivic was known as a colorful and classy fellow in addition to being great copy for the writers outside the ring.

Zivic matched up with Armstrong quite well because of his ring savvy, his fighting style and being a natural welterweight. By the time of his first bout with Zivic, Armstrong was more of a natural lightweight.

Both Zivic and Charley Burley were residents of Pittsburgh. While Burley was considered the better fighter of the two and beat Zivic two out of three times, it wasn't in the cards for Burley to become as big a gate attraction as Zivic. Burley had a boring fighting style and was far from being colorful.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Amazing that the Kid Ray Robinson fought Zivic about a year into his pro career. Ray said it was personal because of his tactics against Hank.
In the 1st round Zivic gave Robinson a lessen. Had him butting himself, lacing him. Rest of the fight Ray just kept him on the outside.

 

1940-10-05 Daily News (New York, NY) (page 29)
By Jack Mahon
Armstrong was off to a great early lead because Zivic tried to fight Henry at his own style--namely, laying his chin on the champion's shoulder and whaling away. This didn't pay off and once Fritzie stepped back and fought his natural style--long range--he began to ring up right uppercuts and points.

 

Armstrong had started to show rust from fighting such competition in a schedule that tight,yet Zivic's just getting started.

 

Armstrong accumulated a ton of facial injuries over the course of his title reign, & his hectic fight schedule didn't allow sufficient time for them to heal thoroughly. Zivic's uppercuts (& possibly some thumbs & elbows as well) turned his face to hamburger meat in both fights.

After losing their rematch, Armstrong took some time off, allowed some time for his face & body to heal, & then soundly beat Zivic in their 3rd fight.