An amateur boxer who you might not know about

Two weeks ago, Notre Dame football’s prize safety Tom Zbikowski made his way through a… Two weeks ago, Notre Dame football’s prize safety Tom Zbikowski made his way through a tunnel, facing the familiar sounds of “Go Michigan” and “Let’s go Irish.”

Problem is, it wasn’t the famed tunnel attaching the Notre Dame Stadium locker rooms to the actual field — you know-the one where your tears started to build when Rudy made his first entrance dressed in uniform.

No, this tunnel didn’t lead to a matchup with the rivaled Michigan Wolverines, but led from a back locker room to the ring of a boxing match.

The 5-foot-11, 212-pound Zbikowski was about to finish his amateur boxing career, which he sustained long enough to accumulate a reported record of 75-15 since he attained his boxing license at the age of nine.

His match ended in the second round on a TKO of his opponent. His once-promising boxing career didn’t end, though, only the amateur portion. Zbikowski is just beginning.

He’s now about to enter the world of prizefighting.

On June 10, the junior will make his pro boxing debut, fighting on the Miguel Cotto-Paulie Malignaggi card against an undetermined opponent inside the Mecca of boxing — Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“This is an unbelievable feeling right now,” he told reporters during a press conference inside Madison Square Garden. “I’m not sure if I should say this, but I would have done this for free to be able to fight in Madison Square Garden.”

First off, how great is this?

This kid just earned your respect, whether you’re a fan of the Irish or not. If he’s tough enough to do this, then let him earn some recognition. This was his dream long before the game of football entered his life.

And second off, to all the naysayers, calm down. He’s going to be fine, and head coach Charlie Weis signed off on the idea, too. And don’t worry about the NCAA, he’s cleared everything.

He retains his final two years of eligibility as a football player for Coach Weis so long as he doesn’t take sponsorship money, endorsement money or promote any boxing products.

“I told him I would support him as long as I got the clarification that he wouldn’t lose eligibility,” Weis said, according to an ESPN.com report. “That was a bigger issue than a guy getting hurt who has already been in the ring 90 times.”

As for Zbikowski’s concerns on his health, “I’m not going to get hurt,” he said in the same report. “Just tell them to look at the size of my head. They can check my X-rays to see how thick my skull is. Nothing is going to happen.”

Maybe he’s a little too confident in believing nothing will happen, because you simply never know. But I’m on his side with this, especially considering the number of times he’s already competed in the ring.

Zbikowski is an NFL-caliber player. He will more than likely only use one of those final two years of eligibility at Notre Dame, and has been told by Weis to prepare himself for the 2007 NFL Draft.

He’s the best player on the Fighting Irish defense, and also doubles as a threatening punt-return specialist, who’s known for returning a punt for a touchdown at any time.

But still, he wants to box. He’s always boxed. His first dream was boxing. He never thought he’d play football at Notre Dame or in the NFL. He thought he’d be training for the 2004 or 2008 Olympics as a boxer.

So let him live out his glory days and maximize his athletic potential in two very demanding sports at once.

My only question pertaining to the situation is how he would fair in a matchup with Pitt’s own Carl Krauser. Krauser, as we all know, holds a 2-0 amateur boxing record — not quite the experience of Zbikowski, but hmm, I can only imagine.

Alan Smodic is a Senior Staff Writer for The Pitt News. E-mail your predictions of a Carl Krauser-Tom Zbikowski boxing match to him at ams85@pitt.edu.