LEATHER AND BLOOD
by Randy Tantlinger

Did you know that Pittsburgh, Pa. is the Mecca of Boxing Champions? No less than twelve men have been crowned “World Champion” who were weaned on the streets of Western Pa. Pittsburgh is a tough town where men's wills are forged from the heat of the blast furnace and from the depths of the coal mines. Pittsburgh is a town that honors, admires and bestows godlike status to her sports heroes. This is “Leather and Blood” the story of the city of Pittsburgh, Pa and Western Pennsylvania and the men who fought from the streets of the “Steel City” to become boxing's greatest and earned the title of “World Champions”. Their names are immortal and their stories in and out of the ring are priceless. Billy Conn the greatest light heavyweight Champion of all time who had Hollywood leading man looks and charm, the love of a beautiful women and a stubborn streak that would rob him of his greatest victory. Billy Soose was a bad ass with a college degree and hands of steel. The Yarosz brothers who fought to feed their families during the great depression and WWII. And arguably one of the greatest fighters of all time Harry Greb aka. “The Pittsburgh Windmill” who lived so fast he caught up with death! Charley Burley perhaps the one of the best Pittsburgh fighters never to get a shot at a championship because of the color of his skin. And of course, “The Patron Saint of Dirty Fighters”, Fritzie Zivic who could thumb you in the eye and truly mean it when he said “sorry about that” and a man who loved practical jokes and the man that made Jake “The Raging Bull” LaMotta think about retiring after he beat him so bad! Then there are the “Champions” who's life's outside the ring were troubled at best. Paul Spadafora a champion with a defensive style that made him impossible to hit and inner demons that destroyed him. There's the story of Micheal Moorer the hardest hitting Light Heavyweight Champion of all time who dared to stand in front of the immortal human wrecking ball known as Big George Foreman and loose the greatest title on the planet; “Heavyweight Champion of the World”. These are just some of the men you will find in these pages. Men who earned the title of “Champion” through the pain and glory of leather and blood.

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