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 Chuck Zito: Friend of the Game
 by Thomas Gerbasi (March 25, 2003)
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Take one look at him, and you’ll know that when Chuck Zito talks about next week’s inaugural broadcast of “Monday Night Fights”, you better listen.
“These Monday Night Fights are gonna be great,” said Zito, the HBOPPV show’s sideline reporter. “They remind me of the Gillette Friday Night Fights, so I’m looking forward to commentating and I can’t wait to see the battles that night.”
Zito, a lifelong New Yorker, is not your typical broadcaster, and if the name doesn’t ring a bell, the face will. A star of the recently ended HBO series Oz, a bodyguard to the stars, and a former president of the New York chapter of the Hell’s Angels, the 50-year-old has never stepped in front of the camera to commentate on a boxing show before, but if anyone is qualified to comment on some real fights, it’s him.
Because in addition to the obvious celebrity value he brings to the show, Zito has seen the game at many levels, from fan to participant. But his first indoctrination to the sport came from his father. It’s something that has remained a part of him ever since.
“I remember when I was five years old, him getting down on his knees and putting the gloves on me and teaching me how to box,” said Zito. “That was my first exposure actually. Growing up and seeing his trophies and pictures around the house got me involved in the sport. I don’t know any other sport except for boxing. I don’t know football, baseball, hockey, nothing. The only thing I know is boxing.”
Zito’s father, who fought in the 30’s and 40’s under the name Al LaBarba, was a welterweight with over 200 fights to his credit, and who was preparing for a title bout with Marty Servo when he was called to service in World War II. After a few post-war fights, LaBarba retired, never to realize his championship dreams.
The young Zito - in a precursor to “Boom Boom” Mancini’s quest to win a title for his father – soon picked up the gloves.
“I tried to follow in my father’s footsteps,” said Zito. “At 12 years old I became an amateur fighter. I was in the New York Golden Gloves four different times, but didn’t have the desire and willpower to train 100 percent for the fight game. I didn’t take it serious enough.”
He did have some success in the Gloves, and once you even mention the prestigious tournament, Zito interrupts with the name that will live with him forever.
“Pratt,” he chuckles. “You never forget the name.”
Joe Pratt, Zito’s first Golden Gloves opponent, is described in his autobiography, Street Justice, as “The big guy in the corner. The one with muscles on top of muscles.”
Seconds into their bout, Zito ate a right hand that jarred him, but he survived the round, only to receive some dubious words of encouragement from his father.
“I came back to the corner and my father said, ‘Don’t worry. He’s not laying a glove on ya.’ I said, ‘Somebody better watch the referee, cause somebody’s kicking my ass.’”
Zito came back to win the fight by a second round knockout, but his boxing career wasn’t going to progress any further than the amateur ring.
“When I found out I was fighting I’d go to the gym like two days before the fight,” admits Zito. “I never trained. I never got out and did my roadwork. I had so many distractions in my life, growing up at the same time. I think I could have been champion if I stuck with boxing.”
Going on to live a uniquely American life and earning a niche as a true original, Zito has never forgotten his roots in the sweet science. And as anyone who has seen him on Oz or has heard the stories of his KO of Jean Claude Van Damme in a club a few years back can relate, the Bronx native doesn’t only know how to throw hands, but he’s probably still in the shape to do it in the ring.
“I still think about getting back in there,” said Zito. “I’m in great shape today. I just turned 50 and I’m in better shape than guys at 25. I still get in there, I train, I spar. I’m very much into the martial arts and I do a lot of that. But yeah, I think I could go in there and take a lot of guys out.”
A true tough guy who is fond of saying that while he never really started a fight, he never walked away from one either, Zito has achieved celebrity status in the fight game as well. He’s a fixture at fights in and around the New York Tri-State area, and to the fighters, he’s one of the guys.
“Most of the fighters, especially New York fighters, they’re from the street, and they know I’m a street person,” said Zito. “We get along real well. A lot of the guys give me respect and it’s like this bond where we’ve known each other for years. Certain guys in the fight game are dear friends of mine: Vinny Pazienza, Mike Tyson, Arturo Gatti. I do relate to these guys.”
But while he can view today’s fistic heroes as peers, he holds his highest praise for “The Greatest” himself, Muhammad Ali. Yet he wasn’t always a fan.
“At first I didn’t like Muhammad Ali, especially when he dodged the draft,” said Zito. “My guy was Joe Frazier and I was rooting for him in the first Ali fight. But Ali had this thing about him that nobody could tell him what to do, and he was sticking to his guns. He just stuck up for his beliefs. Even with the service thing, because he was a Muslim he said that he wasn’t going to fight these people. All those years he believed that, and he stood by his beliefs. That’s what I liked about him. Through the years I gained so much respect for him and I especially remember taking my wife and my daughter to Deer Lake, Pennsylvania in 1974, just to take some pictures, not realizing that he would invite us into his home and talk to us in his own living room. I always remembered that, and he remembered me when I saw him again. I had the pleasure of being his bodyguard a couple of times.”
No heavyweight has come close to matching Ali’s impact since then, but if anyone came close, it was Zito’s buddy, Mike Tyson (if you saw the infamous Tyson-Lewis press conference melee last year, Zito was right in the middle of the festivities).
Needless to say, Zito has some pointed observations on Tyson and the state of the division.
“Whether you love Mike or you hate him, he’s still the biggest draw in boxing there is,” said Zito. “Lennox Lewis, he’s the champ and all, but I don’t think years ago he could be compared to Ali, Frazier or any of these guys. If he was around today, Jerry Quarry would be heavyweight champion of the world. He was a great, skilled fighter, but in his time there were so many other great fighters in the same era.”
In just a few minutes of talking boxing with Zito, it’s obvious that while he respects fighters like Roy Jones Jr. (“a terrific fighter, a brilliant boxer”), Oscar De La Hoya (“a great fighter. He got robbed, as far as I’m concerned, against Trinidad”), and Shane Mosley (“I thought he was a great boxer, but now he seems to be a little gunshy”), his heart is with the golden age of the sport, an era brought back briefly by guys such as Ward and Gatti.
“One of the greatest fights, and it will go down in history now, is Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward,” said Zito. “It will go down with Zale-Graziano and LaMotta-Robinson. They put on a tremendous fight and they remind me of the old-time fighters. But there are not too many guys that I follow anymore because with all the belts and the different divisions, it’s ridiculous. Years ago there was one champion of the world, and that meant the whole world. Now there’s just so many, who’s to say who’s the champ?”
Chuck Zito is not an airbrushed talking head, babbling about something he knows nothing about. No, he’ll tell it like it is - warts and all - and you can respect his opinion because above all, he’s a fan.
E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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