Fortune Was Too Good for Boxer

Grey River Argus, 15 April 1948, Page 6

Fortune Was Too Good for Boxer

Fightin’ Fritzie Zivic, who a decade ago stirred the ring world by lifting the welterweight crown from Henry Armstrong, admits that he breezed a 350,000 dollars fortune away because he was “too good for his own good.” It was a “sucker’s life” that dumped Pittsburgh’s “Golden Bov” on the financial rocks. “I was too good a guy . . . You give this guy 100 bucks, another gets you for 3500 dollars ... I gave it to the wrong guys ... I was just too fast with a buck,” flat-faced Fritzie said. All that was left after his 10-year spending spree at a 35,000-a-year clip was an ambition to groom “kid” fighters into stardom. Zivic, now 34, also admitted that in lush days of banging out as much as 500 dollars a minute with his fists, he was pretty generous to himself. “When you make 100 dollars a fight you buy 5 dollar shoes; make 500 dollars and you buy 10 dollar shoes. The same for suits, instead of 35 dollars you got to have 75 dollar suits, maybe more.” HARD HIT Zivic said he was hit hardest when the Government socked him for 17,<3OO dollars in back income taxes last October. “Don’t worry, I’ll get backup there, Zivic promised. The kid who rose from Plum Alley in the teeming Lawrenceville “strip” to become welterweight champ was supposedly well-heeled. The lid blew off when a used car dealer filed an information, charging Zivic with passing a “bouncing” 1000 dollar cheque. “I told him I’d pay off 200 dollars every ten days,” Fritzie said, “but he didn’t want it that way. Now he does this to me.” Zivic, who brought a ‘dream ranch after he won the title from Hammering Henry seven years ago as a surprise gift to his wife, Helen, said he would sell the 35-dollar “Lebanon Hills ranch” with its swimming poo and four baths to finance a chain of kid boxing schools. “It takes a few years to get away from being champion,” he said. “You keep throwing 50 dollars here and 100 dollars there.” . He said one fight manager is into him” for 1750 dollars, but the total amount “borrowed” over the years is around 17,000 dollars. Zivic hung up his gloves last February.