Boxer Jake LaMotta passes away at 95 years old

De Niro said in a statement.

The Bronx Bull, as he was MIAMI » Jake LaMotta, the knowninhisfightingdays,compiled former middleweight champion an 83-19-4 record with 30 whose life in and out knockouts, in a career that began of the ring was depicted in 1941 and ended in 1954. in the film “Raging Bull,” LaMotta fought the great for which Robert De Niro Sugar Ray Robinson six won an Academy Award, times, handing Robinson the has died, his fiancee said first defeat of his career and Wednesday. He was 95. losing the middleweight title

LaMotta died Tuesday at a to him in a storied match. Miami-area hospital from complicationsofpneumonia,according In the fight before he lost the title, LaMotta saved the to fiancee Denise Baker. championship in moviescript

“Rest in Peace, Champ,” 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 U.S. 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 interview printed in Peter Heller’s 1973 book “In This Corner: 40 World Champions Tell Their Stories.”

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 the Frenchman Marcel Cerdan couldn’t continue after the 10th round.