Bobby Hitz can’t sit still when he’s got a Friday night fight going on.

The outspoken Hitz, holds the record as the longest running boxing promoter in Chicagoland. Staging bouts like this one for close to 25 years.

Hitz is known in the business as a straight up guy. He pulls no punches.

He told us the promotion business needs more experienced guys looking out for fighters.

“You have to have 20 fights under your belt to turn pro. You have to have a lot of things to be a trainer. they make you take a test. But to be a promoter all you need is a pinky ring and a shorty and they give you a license and it’s really crazy.”

But Hitz says he earned his license, as a heavy weight boxer. He began his career as an amateur in 1978. He won the golden gloves title before turning pro. Most of his career was spent in Detroit, managed by boxing’s first female manager, Jacki Kallen.

“It’s about being a con man in the ring. You know I’m going to fake you and then jab you and hit you with the right hand. It’s such a cerebral spot, that people won’t even get it.

For Hitz, boxing was in his soul.

“And that’s what makes the champions even greater because that’s something that you’re born with . It’s something that’s really in you.

It’s playing chess with your hands. it’s trying to you know make a guy think about something else and give him something different.”

His most notable bout, in 1988. That’s when Hitz was knocked out, by George Foreman. In 1989 he hung up his gloves and found himself lost.

“I didn’t know what else to do with my life. Literally I didn’t know what to do with my life.”

He returned to Chicago. While working out in the gym his trainer gave him an idea for a new career.

“He goes to me, hey Hitz you spend a lot of time up there. You should promote.

I had gotten that same advice form Emanuel Steward in Atlantic City.”

And so he did. But unlike most promoters, for Hitz it wasn’t all about the money. It was more about looking out for the fighters.

“What I don’t do is what a lot of guys in this business do is they bs their fighter, I don’t do that.

Super middle weight boxer Mike “Hollywood” Jiminez admires that about Hitz.

“He knows how to rub you the right way and he knows how to put his foot down.”

Hitz’s style has gained respect from both the boxers, and their trainers.

Peter George “Bobby knows how it is to get in there and fight for your life and fight for money…that’s what makes him stand out from the other promoters.”

“You know I really try to instill in all the fighters that fight under me to just be respectful, be a gentleman.”

Along with promoting, throughout the years, Hitz has dabbled in acting, he’s been a restaurant owner and he’s a father.

All things he’s very proud of.

“It’s just been a great life. it’s been great.”

“Because if you do what you love to do, you’ll never work a day in your life and you hear that saying all the time, but it’s really true.”

Bobby Hitz, he’s one of Chicago’s Very Own.