“When I saw the film, I was upset,” LaMotta said later. The film charted LaMotta’s rise, which included a controversial fight against Billy Fox which he threw under orders from the Mafia, his abusive second marriage, as well as his dramatic post-boxing fall. LaMotta retired in 1954 after a split decision defeat to Billy Kilgore in Miami.ĭecades later, his remarkable and often violent life story was brought to a wider audience with Martin Scorsese’s spellbinding “Raging Bull.” “He’s the toughest guy I ever fought, I never knew anyone who was more aggressive and rough as he,” Robinson said years later. Robinson would describe LaMotta as his most durable opponent in the ring. “If the referee had held up another 30 more seconds, Sugar Ray would have collapsed from hitting me,” LaMotta later joked. LaMotta, his eyes badly swollen and unable to see clearly, refused to go down and endured a savage beating before the contest was stopped in the 13th round with LaMotta clinging onto the ropes. The final fight with Robinson took place on February 14, 1951, and was dubbed the “Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

After two successful defenses, he lost the belt in 1952 in his sixth bout against Sugar Ray Robinson. On Jhe scored a knockout win over French boxer Marcel Cerdan to capture the middleweight title. In a career spanning 1941 to 1954, LaMotta racked up a record of 83 victories, 30 of them knockouts, against 19 defeats, according to the boxing statistics website BoxRec. LaMotta’s long life belied a lengthy career in the ring which was notable for some of the most bruising battles the sport has ever seen. The De Niro-founded TriBeca Film Festival later posted a picture of the actor alongside LaMotta and the film’s director Martin Scorsese.

Robert De Niro, who won an Oscar playing La Motta in the 1980 classic “Raging Bull,” led the tributes, saying in a statement: “Rest in peace, champ.” “I just want people to know, he was a great, sweet, sensitive, strong, compelling man with a great sense of humor, with eyes that danced,” Baker was quoted by TMZ as saying. LaMotta’s seventh wife, Denise Baker, told the TMZ.com website that the fighter died in a nursing home following complications from pneumonia. LaMotta, an iconic figure from boxing’s 1950s golden age best known for a brutal six-fight rivalry with Sugar Ray Robinson, passed away on Tuesday, the boxer’s daughter Christi LaMotta said on Facebook. NEW YORK: Jake LaMotta, the legendary former world middleweight boxing champion whose wild life and times inspired the Oscar-winning movie “Raging Bull,” has died at age 95, his family announced Wednesday.

James lamotta