Tuesday night Tom Zbikowski participated in a charity boxing event that, despite a lot of hiccups, ended up being rather successful with an estimated $40,000 being raised for three different charities. The first glitch was Zbikowski’s original opponent, Ken Murphy of Chicago, having a positive test result in his suspension from the fight. Then the ring didn’t show up until a few hours before the fight. Zbikowski’s parents, who organized the event, found an opponent and the near sellout crowd was treated to three fairly entertaining rounds of exhibition boxing between Zibby and Ryan St. Germain.
Charlie Weis, the Notre Dame coaches, Zbikowski’s teammates, and recent Notre Dame commitment Braxston Cave were all on hand to attend the event
Here’s a couple good quotes from Eric Hansen’s article on the fight from the SBT.
“The juices started flowing, and you want to go for a knockout,” Tom Zbikowski said, “but this is an exhibition. It’s for charity.”
The crowd seemed to sleepwalk through the early bouts. But as the main event approached, the boxers got more physical and the crowd livened up. Then when Zbikowski finally made his entrance around 10 p.m., the audience literally surged toward the ring.
Unlike last year’s fight which happened in between spring and fall practice, this will be the only fight for Zbikowski this off-season according to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
“I’m not planning on fighting any pro fights or anything big because I want to get ready for next year,” Zbikowski said. “All I want to do is do this for charity, nothing big.
And for those of who think Zbikowski needs to focus more on football and improving his game… he agrees:
“I wasn’t too happy with my season, and really I’m hungrier than ever just to go out and prove myself again and be the player I was,” Zbikowski said.
