"Irish" Tom | by Jay

Nice piece by Chris Dufresne in the LA Times on Zibby's pugilistic pursuits.

A boy boxer, under his father's tutelage, ducks in and out of every gym joint in Chicago. At 11, Tommy fights five bouts in one week. He remembers a Silver Gloves bout so savage it "could have been fought in a phone booth."

"Zibby" takes fights at the Robert Taylor Homes projects and at Stateway Gardens. Places where, Tommy says, "We'd run in and they'd padlock the door."

Places where punches — and sometimes bullets — flew. Places where you hit the bag and hit the deck.

Once, coming out of Stateway, Dad hit the gas as bullets sprayed around his car. "Don't know if they were aimed at us," Tommy says. "But they were gunshots and they were close."

Check out the whole thing if you have a minute.