Always with him along the way was his reputation as a mean fighter. He fought in the ring as he did on the sidewalks of Brownsville when he was growing up and he occasionally forgot the rules. He finally went too far the night he met Fritzie Zivic in what the New York Times called "one of the most disgraceful exhibitions in the history of boxing." After Zivic jabbed him in the eye with his thumb at the start of the second round, Bummy went berserk and punched Zivic below the belt ten times before the referee disqualified him.

Despite this display, his manager 'Froike' (Benjamin Katz, but he had boxed under the name of Frankie Kane and Froike is the Yiddish equivalent of Frankie), always championed and excused Davis. "Bummy wasn't a bad kid," he once said. "He was really a good kid, but his life was mixed up and nothing ever worked out right for him. They put him in with Tony Canzoneri, which they shouldn't have done, because Tony had been a great champion but now he was washed up. And when Bummy knocked Canzoneri out everyone hated him.

"Everything went wrong for him right down to the night four stickup guys walked into the bar that Bummy had just sold to his pal Dudy. No local hood would of thought of sticking up what had been Bummy's joint. The tough guys knew him and respected him and the joint was off limits. But some out-of-towners have to come and Bummy told them they shouldn't stick up Dudy. You know the rest."

One of the gunmen told Davis—in very offensive language—to mind his own business and to get over to the wall and put his hands up. No man talked to Bummy Davis like that and got away with it. So the graceful left hook made an arc through the air accurately for the last time. The stickup man dropped, his jaw broken in two or three places, but he held onto his gun. He retaliated with a slug that pierced Bummy's throat. The gunmen lammed out the door with Davis going right after them. He died outside on the sidewalk.

(BY IRVING RUDD)

"Most of the crowd were standing on chairs now, roaring protestor encouragement. A wadded newspaper landed in the ring, then somebody's hat. The referee kept his fascinated gaze on the fighters, like a young lab assistant observing a couple of ferocious insects.

Davis walked across the ring and fired a left hook that landed, according to one reporter, "about a foot above Zivic's knees." Zivic's face screwed up in pain, then settled into righteous indignation as he glanced at Referee Billy Cavanagh. Cavanagh was looking elsewhere.

Davis returned to the attack. Another low blow brought a chorus of boos from the crowd. Zivic backed away, but Davis pursued him, ripping two more left hooks into his groin. Fritzie, his face contorted with pain, hopped stiffly, first on one leg, then on the other. He fired back at Davis, rocking his head and drawing blood again from his mouth. But Bummy, in his passion, was impervious to punishment. He crowded Zivic, hooked him low, shifted his attack to the ribs and then lowered it once more. Only once did Referee Cavanagh warn him to keep his punches up.Davis dug another left into Zivic's groin.

Finally, at 2:34 of the second round,Cavanagh stopped the fight......Or, at least, he tried to. But Bummy was not yet ready. His answer to the referee's restraining gesture was to bounce a left hook off Zivic's skull. Faced with a more orthodox attack now, Zivic quickly solved it by hooking Davis twice in the face, bloodying his nose. Handlers from both corners, as well as a squad of burly special cops, poured through the ropes and tried to drag the berserk Davis to his corner. Bummy, his arms pinioned now, aimed a kick at Zivic, who had plunged into the struggling mob. Missing the intended target area on Fritzie's trunks, the kick instead caught Referee Cavanagh in the thigh. Bummy finally was hauled, spitting and cursing, from the ring.

The fight was awarded to Zivic on a foul. Even while the excited crowd streamed out of the Garden, journalists and politicians prepared to publish their outrage to the world. General Phelan, chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, called the fight "the most disgraceful thing I ever saw," and banned Davis from boxing in New York state "for life".

Having joined the Army shortly afterward, Davis was granted a pass by his commanding general and a pardon by General Phelan on condition that he fight Zivic again for an Army charity. In a bout notable for its strict adherence to the commission's regulations, Zivic dealt Davis a savage beating and stopped him in the 10th round. But this orthodox defeat did nothing to break Bummy's rebellious spirit.

Some years later Bummy Davis was shot to death as he charged, bare-handed, into an armed gang trying to hold up the store of a friend in Brownsville. He was still trying to get that left hook across when he went down."

(from sports illustrated)

15th Nov 1940.

"In New York's most riotous ring brawl in years, young Al (Bummy) Davis was disqualified for repeated fouling tonight in the 2nd round of his scheduled 10 round non-title bout with welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic. In the opening session, Zivic battered the floundering Davis about the ring and hit him so hard with a right to the chin that Davis half sank to the canvas, supporting himself on his gloves, with one knee also touching the canvas. Davis was up without a count. In the 2nd round, referee Billy Cavanaugh warned Davis at least four times that he would DQ him if he continued fouling. But Al kept pegging away with his steaming left hook at the champiuon's groin. The fans were screaming, "Foul, foul. Throw him out." And that's what Cavanaugh finally did at 2:34 of the turbulent 2nd round. When Cavanaugh pulled the gladiators apart and motioned Davis to his corner, Davis became almost insane with rage. He tore after Zivic, despite the referee's warding arms, with Zivic desperately trying to fight back. Zivic's manager Luke Carney, joined the fray, then two uniformed policemen leaped into the ring, as newspapers, magazines, and peanut bags showered into the ring." -United Press

"That Zivic is a quittin' bum, he gave me the works and then deliberately stepped into my body punches to make them appear foul. I hit him in the belly and he quit." -Al (Bummy) Davis

"The first two low blows didn't hurt much because my protector caught them. But the third was an uppercut that hurt terribly. I tried to fight back but about every third punch was down in my groin. I was almost paralyzed." -Fritzie Zivic

"I can't talk about rules now because Davis threw them all out the window. We won't need Al Davis anymore in New York. You can say for me that Davis will be barred from NY state for life, and I mean it." -Bill Brown, Commissioner of the NYSAC.