The Bronx Bull: Boxer Jake LaMotta

The man who would later be immortalized in the Martin Scorsese classic Raging Bull was born in the Bronx on July 10, 1921. In a story eerily similar to that of his friend Rocky Graziano, LaMotta first learned to fight when his own father put him to work brawling with other children to entertain adults for pennies and nickels. Also like Graziano, LaMotta spent his teens in constant trouble with the law. The money helped pay the rent. LaMotta turned into a professional prizefighter at age 19 in March 1941.

Standing 5'8" with a 67" reach, and despite that height, LaMotta was actually a big, thickly muscled middleweight. At age 19, he weighed in for his first fight at 167 pounds and would not make the middleweight limit until the second year of his career. LaMotta's style is often grossly misunderstood as a crude brawler who relied on toughness and sheer power to win fights. In reality, LaMotta was a very technical puncher who fought with a coldly applied sense of fury, much like the late Arturo Gatti. LaMotta did have a cast iron chin, but also adept at rolling with punches. This made him the sort of fighter who was deceptively easy to hit, because it was hard to hit him squarely. The Bronx Bull also had a masterful feint and was skilled at playing possum. Rounding out the picture was Jake LaMotta's solid hitting power, enormous physical strength and his will to win.

The War Years
Unlike many boxers, LaMotta wasn't drafted and did not enlist, leaving him free to fight in the ring instead of on the battlefield. The early 1940s saw LaMotta's boxing career progress in the fashion that was common at the time: mostly winning, but with the odd draw or loss as he was thrown in with a journeyman who was too experienced or met with hometown judging. October 1942 saw the rising 21 year old, 25-4-2 contender in a bout with another fresh face, the 35-0 welterweight sensation Sugar Ray Robinson. The Sweet One used superior skill and speed coupled with power to out-box LaMotta from the outside and score a points win, despite LaMotta's 13-pound weight advantage. However, LaMotta was undaunted and would return to fight Robinson again and again.

The Bronx Bull opened 1943 by winning a close fight with Jimmy Edgar, a hard-punching fringe contender, in Detroit. Returning to the Motor City, LaMotta met Robinson again in a two-fight classic in February 1943. The rematch went much like the original bout, with Robinson using footwork, reach, skill, speed and power to keep LaMotta at bay and pile on the points. Yet in the rubber match held three weeks later, LaMotta found Robinson's number and found his way inside. The Bronx Bull literally punched Robinson out the ring in the eighth, and his furious assault bagged all of the last five rounds of the fight. Jake LaMotta won a Unanimous Decision and became the first man to defeat Robinson.

With his victory over Robinson, LaMotta moved on to a bruising string of encounters with one of the dirtiest fighters in boxing history, the former welterweight champion Croat Comet Fritzie Zivic. LaMotta was bigger and younger, but Zivic's masterful mixture of sound boxing and dirty tricks proved a match for the Bronx Bull. LaMotta won a Split Decision in a hotly contested bout, a decision that proved controversial as many thought Zivic won the fight squarely (if not perhaps fairly). Three weeks later they fought a rematch, and Zivic won that encounter hands down. The Croat's jab held LaMotta back, and when LaMotta did get inside he found himself tied up and fouled. The pair fought a rubber match in November 1943, and this time LaMotta applied a savage body attack to wear down Zivic. The result was a close, controversial fight that saw LaMotta carry a Split Decision. In their fourth encounter in January 1944, Zivic hurt his left hand in the 1st Round, enabling LaMotta to come on and apply his full fury to hammer out a solid points victory.

After the War
Jake LaMotta had a hard time with the rest of 1944. He barely beat fringe contender Lou Woods, lost to journeyman Lloyd Marshall, and eked out a close decision to George Kochan. He closed 1944 by knocking out Kochan, setting the stage for his post-war career.

February 1945 saw LaMotta back in the ring with Sugar Ray Robinson. Their fourth encounter fell into the mold of the first two, as Robinson used his legendary tools to sweetly out-box the Bull. LaMotta bounced back from the loss to knock out fringe contender George Costner and meet and stop George Kochan again in a rubber match. September brought on a fifth encounter with Robinson, one that LaMotta was determined to win. The Bronx Bull applied relentless pressure and as the rounds ground on, his fury mounted. The Bull broke though Robinson's defense late in the fight and dominated the 9th through 11th, but it was not enough. LaMotta lost a narrow Split Decision in what Robinson later called "the toughest fight I've ever had with LaMotta."

Stymied with Robinson and unable to secure a middleweight title shot, LaMotta kept fighting and earning money. In June 1946 he fought Jimmy Edgar again, this time to a Draw. He then knocked out Bob Satterfield. Still, it wasn't enough. Jake LaMotta had been a top middleweight contender for seven years, and had not come even close to landing a title shot. During this time, LaMotta had stubbornly refused every approach made to him by the mafia, insisting on making his own way to the top. In 1947, he finally caved in and agreed to rig some fights. He lost two bouts back to back, one against Cecil Hudson and one with Billy Fox, and it was the latter that became infamous, as LaMotta later admitted to throwing the Fox fight to secure his middleweight title shot.

Cooperating with the mob set the stage for bigger fights with other middleweight contenders. In December 1948, LaMotta pounded out a close decision over Tommy Yarsoz. He then stumbled in February 1949 by dropping a points loss to French middleweight Laurent Dauthuille. LaMotta then fought another French contender in the form of Robert Villeman, and was lucky to win a controversial Split Decision. Despite the loss and the controversy, LaMotta's cooperation with the mafia evidently paid off, as he was matched with World Middleweight Champion Marcel Cerdan in June 1949.

The Champ
Cerdan was a 111-3 Frenchman who had captured the crown from Tony Zale the previous year, and was arguably the greatest prizefighter ever produced by France. In a bruising encounter in Detroit, the two gladiators proved closely matched through the first three rounds. After that, Cerdan suffered from a separated shoulder and proved unable to fight through the injury. For his own part, LaMotta hurt his left hand in the 5th, but was able to focus through the pain and land hundreds of blows on the injured fist. Cerdan, barely able to defend himself, grimly hung on, yet to no avail. His manager threw in the towel in the 10th, making Jake LaMotta the World Middleweight Champion just a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday.

La Motta's first bout after winning the championship was a non-title rematch with Villeman, who was now determined to not only avenge his own controversial loss to LaMotta, but also the honor of France. Villeman did exactly that, boxing his way to a clean, thumping points victory. The Frenchman called on LaMotta to give him a rubber match with the world title at stake, a fight LaMotta never gave him. Instead, LaMotta knocked out tough journeyman Dick Wagner and out-pointed contender Tiberio Mitri.

LaMotta sought out Laurent Dauthuille in September 1950. The Frenchman handily out-boxed the Bronx Bull for 11 straight rounds. In the last third of the fight, LaMotta started to come on, producing plenty of action and drama. Even so, all Dauthuille had to do in the last round was stay away from LaMotta to win the fight, as he was clearly way ahead on the scorecards. However, he was unable to do that. The Bronx Bull charged, caught Dauthuille and rained a storm of bombs on him, knocking the challenger out with only 13 second to go in the 15th and final round.

February 14, 1951 saw Jake LaMotta meet Sugar Ray Robinson for a sixth time. This fight strikingly demonstrated just how much Robinson had grown and LaMotta had declined. Robinson was now only a few pounds smaller than LaMotta and had not lost a fight since their third encounter in 1943. LaMotta, on the other hand, had been out-boxed by both Villeman and Dauthuille, as well as having had a very hard time with Friztie Zivic back in the mid-1940s. Robinson delivered such a brutal beating to LaMotta in the later rounds that the fight became known as "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre," a beating that ended LaMotta's title reign in a 13th Round TKO. It was the only time LaMotta was ever legitimately stopped in a professional boxing match, and even then LaMotta finished on his feet (albeit just barely held up by the ropes).

Retirement
LaMotta lost his next two fights after the crushing defeat at the hands of Robinson. The Bronx Bull soldiered on for a while after that, finally retiring in 1954 with a record of 83-19-4 with 30 KOs (a surprisingly small KO percentage, given LaMotta's reputation for savagery and power). In retirement, LaMotta became the owner or manager of a succession of bars and nightclubs, and worked as a stage comedian and actor, appearing in 15 films and stage plays. In 1960, he testified before a Senate investigation on corruption in boxing and admitted to taking a dive in the Fox fight. LaMotta published his memoirs in 1970, which served as the basis for the film Raging Bull.

LaMotta was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985, and then the International Hall of Fame in 1990. He came late to the world title and his reign lasted for less than two years with only two successful defenses, yet prior to winning that championship LaMotta had already fought with most of the top fighters in the 160-pound ranks, including a win and a near-win over Robinson. The Ring ranked him as #52 on its list of greatest fighters of all-time, and #5 on its list of top middleweights of all-time. Herb Goldman also thought highly of LaMotta, ranking him as the #7 middleweight in boxing history.