Fritzie Zivic

Fritzie Zivic
Data
Birth Name	Ferdinand Henry John Zivcich
Weight class	Welterweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	May 8, 1913
place of birth	Pittsburgh
Date of death	May 16, 1984
style	Left delivery
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	232
Victories	157
Knockout victories	81
Defeats	65
draw	10

Fritzie Zivic (born May 8, 1913 in Pittsburgh as Ferdinand Henry John Zivcich (Živčić) , † May 16, 1984 ) was an American boxer.

He had a Croatian father, a Slovenian mother and four older brothers who all boxed and were known as "Fighting Zivics". He became a professional in 1931, but at the beginning of his career was only moderately successful with his "rummaging style". From 1935 to 1936 he lost eight times in a row, but almost always only on points. Towards the end of the year he boxed a well-known man for the first time, losing just on points to Billy Conn , who was also from Pittsburgh.

In 1938 he beat the highly respected Charley Burley , again a local rival, but lost the rematch just like the decisive duel in 1939.

With victories over Kid Azteca and the lightweight Sammy Angott he moved up into the world class. In 1940 he won the welterweight world title against the legendary Henry Armstrong , who by then had made a spectacular winning streak.

Nevertheless, he was only known to a small extent for his successes, but he was notorious above all for his unfair way of fighting. Virtually every match was full of head butts, low blows, elbow strikes and thumbs pressed in the opponent's eye. He also deliberately hit his opponents in the eyes, which is not against the rules but is unusual. He is regularly voted the dirtiest boxer in boxing history, ahead of Eusebio Pedroza .

Ironically, in the first skirmish after winning the title against Al Davis, the latter was disqualified when he lost his temper after a foul by Zivic and responded with a series of fouls of his own. Against Lew Jenkins Zivic boxed in a draw, in a rematch he won by knockout. In the rematch against Armstrong in January 1941, he even managed a technical knockout. In the second duel with Davis, he also had an early success.

In 1941 he lost his title to Freddie Cochrane and could never win it back. That was also because another superstar with Sugar Ray Robinson , who never lost in the welterweight division, was in the making at the time and hit him twice, once by knockout.

Armstrong was also able to beat him in a third encounter in 1942, just like the lightweight Beau Jack . Against the middleweight Jake LaMotta he won once and lost three times, the lightweight Bob Montgomery he was defeated as well as the welter Tommy Bell.

Zivic ended his career in 1949. He died of Alzheimer's disease in 1984 .

In 1993, Zivic was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Fritzie Zivic in the BoxRec database
• Hall of Fame ( Memento from December 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )