The enormity of what he’d just done with a thunderous cross-cum-hook, the last of a flurry of clubbing shots, writ large before him.
Opponent Danny Nardico rushed to a corner, the adrenaline racing through his body. LaMotta, 31 and fighting at a career high of 173 pounds, pawed for the bottom rope with his right hand. Referee Bill Regan, once a Welterweight now broadened by twenty years of retirement, took up the count. Initially, the crowd seemed neither stunned nor charged by the sight of former Middleweight champion and boxing superstar Jake LaMotta slumped to the canvas for the first time in his then 103-fight career. No hush fell beneath the domed ceiling of the Miami Coliseum. He eventually dropped the belt to Robinson in their first meeting before taking them back with a stunning win in the rematch.(This nostalgic item on Jake LaMotta originally appeared on David’s site .uk and you can also follow David for much more on boxing history and the latest on fights, specifically in the U.K.) He won his first major boxing championship in June 1949, with his reign lasting until February 1951. LaMotta’s style of being willing to take two punches in order to give one of his own led him to many exciting fights. However, his first crack at the belt didn’t come until nearly two years later. He later revealed he was promised a championship fight if he ensured the result didn’t go his way.
LaMotta was also involved in a moment of high controversy in 1947, when he admittedly threw a fight against Billy Fox for a fourth-round TKO defeat. LaMotta fought Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Robinson an astounding six different times, handing the legendary fighter his first boxing loss in one of his crowning moments. He had several noteworthy moments during his 13-year run inside the ring before his final contest in 1954. LaMotta, born on July 10th, 1921, competed in 106 professional bouts during his illustrious boxing career, going 83-19-4. According to the Associated Press, which confirmed the boxer’s death with fiancee Denise Baker, LaMotta endured “complications of pneumonia” and died in a Miami-area hospital.
Former boxing champion Jake LaMotta died on Tuesday at the age of 95.
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