‘Raging Bull’ LaMotta always lived up to image
NEW YORK — Jake LaMotta, an iron-fisted battler who brawled his way to a middleweight title and was later immortalized by Robert De Niro in the film Raging Bull, has died. He was 95. The former middleweight champion died on Tuesday at a Miami-area hospital from complications of pneumonia, according to his longtime fiancee, Denise Baker.
LaMotta handed Sugar Ray Robinson his first defeat and reigned for nearly two years as middleweight champion during a time boxing was one of America’s biggest sports.
He was a fan favorite who fought with fury, though he admitted to once intentionally losing a fight to get in line for a title bout.
LaMotta gained fame with a new generation because of the 1980 film based loosely on his autobiography from a decade earlier.
De Niro won an Academy Award playing the troubled boxer — violent both inside and outside the ring — in a Martin Scorsese production that several critics have ranked as among the top 100 movies ever made.
“Rest in Peace, Champ,” De Niro said in a statement.
“Jake LaMotta was a champ,” said Scorsese. “He was, as they say, larger than life. He lived a tough life, with a lot to overcome, but that’s exactly what he did. I’m glad to have had the chance to know him.”
The Bronx Bull, as LaMotta was known in his fighting days, compiled a record of 83-19-4 with 30 knockouts, in a career that began in 1941 and ended in 1954.
But it was the movie that unflinchingly portrayed him as a violent and abusive husband — he was married six times — that is remembered even more.
LaMotta fought the great Robinson six times, handing him the first defeat of his career in 1943 and losing the middleweight title to him in a storied match on Feb 14, 1951, at Chicago Stadium.
Robinson stopped LaMotta in the 13th round of their scheduled 15-round bout in a fight that became known as the second St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, in reference to the infamous 1929 mob killings of the same name.
LaMotta took a beating in the later rounds of the fight, but he refused to go down until the referee stepped in to save him from further punishment. LaMotta finished 1-5 in six fights against Robinson, who many in boxing think was the greatest fighter ever.
“I fought Sugar Ray Robinson so many times it’s a wonder I don’t have diabetes,” LaMotta was fond of saying.
In the fight before he lost the title, LaMotta saved the championship in movie-script fashion against Laurent Dauthuille.
Trailing badly on all three scorecards, LaMotta knocked out the challenger with 13 seconds left in the fight.
LaMotta threw a fight against Billy Fox, which he admitted in testimony before the Kefauver Committee, a US Senate committee investigating organized crime in 1960.
“I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did,” LaMotta said in 1970.
LaMotta was “stopped” by Fox in the fourth round on Nov 14, 1947, in Madison Square Garden. He didn’t get a title shot until 10 fights later.
On June 16, 1949, in Detroit, he became middleweight champion when Frenchman Marcel Cerdan couldn’t continue after the 10th round.
Renowned for his strong chin, and the punishment he could take, and dish out, LaMotta was knocked down only once — in a 1952 loss to lightheavyweight Danny Nardico — in his 106 fights.