The pair's most famous fight ended when Robinson stopped LaMotta in a punishing 13th round to win the undisputed world middleweight title. It is one of the most famous fights in boxing history and LaMotta is still alive today to tell the tale. "I fought Sugar Ray so often I almost got diabetes," Jake LaMotta has often joked and the most painful of those six fights was at Chicago Stadium on St. Jake LaMotta was Sugar Ray Robinson's bloody Valentine 65 years ago in a savage world middleweight title fight. In 1970, LaMotta co-wrote an autobiography entitled Raging Bull: My Story, which later served as the basis for Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film Raging Bull, with Robert De Niro as LaMotta.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
After testifying about the Billy Fox bout before the Kefauver Senate investigation into boxing corruption in 1960, LaMotta appeared as a bartender in The Hustler (1961) before playing in some obscure film productions throughout the 1960s. In 1956, he was jailed for six months when a teenage prostitute cited his premises as a place of assignation.Īfter his release, Rocky Graziano managed to arrange a few television appearances for LaMotta, who began to give serious thought to becoming an actor. He subsequently opened a nightclub in Miami but his growing fondness for drink mitigated against its success. In 1952, he suffered the indignity of being knocked to the canvas for the first time by Danny Nardico, and two years later, after a points loss to Billy Kilgore in Miami, LaMotta retired from the ring with a record of 83 wins, four draws and 19 losses. LaMotta continued fighting, now as a light-heavyweight, but without much success. Although a natural light-heavyweight, he opted to campaign in the more prestigious (and better-paid) middleweight division. Exempt from military service due to a childhood ear infection, LaMotta had 22 fights in his first year in the paid ranks. He soon won the newspaper-sponsored Diamond Belt in the light-heavyweight division, before turning professional in 1941.
On his release, LaMotta began training at the Teasdale Athletic Club in the Bronx. It was at Coxsackie that both LaMotta and Graziano decided to become boxers. You wanna know how popular Jake was? When we played hide and seek, nobody ever looked for LaMotta.” Recalling their childhood, and LaMotta’s already violent disposition, Graziano once quipped: “Me and Jake LaMotta grew up in the same neighbourhood. Scorsese and De Niro pay tribute to 'Raging Bull' LaMottaīefore long, LaMotta was caught attempting to break into a jewellery shop and was sent to the State Reform School at Coxsackie in upstate New York, where he renewed his friendship with one Rocco Barbella, better known as future fellow middleweight champion Rocky Graziano.
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