America at Large: Tommy Zbikowski won't be the first college football star to perform in another sport at Madison Square Garden, writes George Kimball.
I can recall having watched Herschel Walker, and before him, OJ Simpson, compete in the 60-yard dash at the Millrose Games, but when Tommy Z steps into the ring against an as-yet undetermined opponent on the night of June 10th he will be the first Notre Dame football captain to make his professional boxing debut in the world's most storied arena.
The Miguel Cotto-Paulie Malignaggi world light welterweight title bout will nominally be the main event, deliberately scheduled to coincide with New York's Puerto Rican Day Parade in what promoter Bob Arum has proclaimed boxing's version of "West Side Story". (Malignaggi, is a New York-born Italian-American but spent part of his boyhood in Sicily; we can't help but wonder how Cotto is going to react if he ever figures out that Arum's "West Side Story" analogy casts him in the role of Maria.)
But both the New York Irish and the Fighting Irish will have a vested rooting interest as well. John Duddy, the gifted Derry middleweight, will put his unbeaten (16-0) record, along with his WBC "Continental Americas" title on the line against Chicagoan Freddy Cuevas, while Zbikowski will fulfil what he says is a lifelong dream by participating in his first professional fight.
Just last weekend Zbikowski - or "Tommy Z," as his ring nom de guerre appears destined to be - was on the football field in South Bend, participating in the annual intrasquad Blue-Gold scrimmage that celebrates the end of Notre Dame's spring practices.
Zbikowski, listed as a 202lb-pound safety, plans to weigh in around 215 for the Garden fight. Last season his 71 tackles ranked fourth among the Fighting Irish, and he was named a third-team All-American as a junior. He is also Notre Dame's principal punt return man last year, and just two weeks ago was elected defensive captain for the 2006 season by a vote of his team-mates, two dozen or so of whom plan to attend the June 10th boxing card.
The NCAA has already ruled that Tommy Z's boxing activities won't violate his collegiate football eligibility, and while university head coaches as a rule don't like to see their best players getting smacked in the head, at least not away from the football field, Charlie Weis has already given the enterprise his blessing.
"It's a good summer job," said Weis.
"I've been boxing competitively for as long as I've been playing organized football," said Zbikowski, a veteran of 90 amateur bouts. (His record is 75-15.) "For me, the two sports have aspects that have complemented one another and helped make me a better athlete in each."
Two days after the Blue-Gold Game, Zbikowski held court at the university's Isban Auditorium on Monday, certainly the first time that Notre Dame's sports information office had convened a press conference to announce a professional boxing event.
He brought along with him his lawyer/advisor, Mike Joyce, who voiced the opinion that, had be focused on boxing instead of football, Tommy Z could likely have qualified for the US Olympic team." (Having watched the American superheavyweight entry, Jason Estrada, perform in Athens two years ago, we have no reason do doubt that.)
"If he wasn't playing football at the University of Notre Dame, people would probably talk about this kid as the next Mike Tyson - or maybe the Anti-Tyson as far as outside-the-ring behaviour goes," said Joyce. "His skills are that good."
The Sweet Science could also provide Zbikowski with a fall-back position down the road. A pro football career would seem a dubious proposition in that, despite his collegiate credentials, he is a bit slow afoot as NFL defensive backs go. (An alternative might be to add weight in the hope of transforming himself into a smallish linebacker.)
Although Zbikowski knows who his next football opponent will be - Georgia Tech, on September 2nd - he doesn't even know who he will be fighting in New York, but trust me, it is unlikely that Charlie Weis will have much to worry about when it comes to his safety getting injured in the ring.
The football player, who has never been knocked down, much less out, as an amateur, noted that "I've been through 90 fights and sparred with some of the best boxers in Chicago. You can get hurt doing anything."
Zbikowski plans to work out around South Bend for the next couple of weeks until classes end, and then travel to Miami, where he will prepare for the June bout under the tutelage of Hall of Fame trainer Angelo Dundee.
Tommy Z has even persuaded his mother, Sue, to attend the Madison Square Garden event, and Sue hasn't watched her son box in the flesh since he was 12 years of age.
"She usually just watches the tapes once the fights are over and she knows the outcome," said Zbikowski. "I don't think she likes seeing her little baby getting punched."
