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Jake LaMotta

 
Jake LaMotta

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Jake LaMotta



 
 
Giacobe LaMotta (born July 10, 1921), better known as Jake LaMotta, nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull", is a former boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 middleweight
Middleweight

Middleweight is a division, or Boxing weight classes, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s....
 champion who was portrayed by Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro

Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. is a two-time Academy Award-winning United States actor, director and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time....
 in the film Raging Bull.

tta was born in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, specifically the Toodles McGee section of the Bronx
The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the Five Boroughs of New York City and the newest of the 62 Administrative divisions of New York#county of New York State....
, near the Pelham Parkway and Morris Park area. He began boxing at an early age when his father made him fight other neighborhood kids for the entertainment of adults.






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Giacobe LaMotta (born July 10, 1921), better known as Jake LaMotta, nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull", is a former boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 middleweight
Middleweight

Middleweight is a division, or Boxing weight classes, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s....
 champion who was portrayed by Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro

Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. is a two-time Academy Award-winning United States actor, director and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time....
 in the film Raging Bull.

Early life

LaMotta was born in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, specifically the Toodles McGee section of the Bronx
The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the Five Boroughs of New York City and the newest of the 62 Administrative divisions of New York#county of New York State....
, near the Pelham Parkway and Morris Park area. He began boxing at an early age when his father made him fight other neighborhood kids for the entertainment of adults. A crowd pleaser even back then, the money that spectators would throw into the ring after Jake fought — usually pennies, nickels and dimes — helped pay the rent at home. LaMotta turned to pro boxing in 1941 at the age of 19.

Boxing records

LaMotta, who compiled a record of 83 wins, 19 losses and four draws with 30 wins by way of knockout
Knockout

A knockout is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving strike ....
, was the first man to beat Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson was a professional boxer. Frequently cited as the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson's performances at the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight....
, knocking him down in the first round and outpointing him over the course of 10 rounds during the second fight of their legendary six-bout rivalry.

On 14 November, 1947, he was knocked out in four rounds by Billy Fox
Billy Fox (boxer)

Billy Fox is a former American light heavyweight boxer....
. The New York State Athletic Commission
New York State Athletic Commission

The New York State Athletic Commission or NYSAC, also known as the New York Athletic Commission, regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of New York, including licensure and supervision of promoters, boxing, professional wrestling, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, seconds, ring officials, managers,...
 withheld purses for the fight and suspended LaMotta. The fight with Fox would come back to haunt LaMotta later in life, during a hearing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the primary unit in the United States United States Department of Justice, serving as both a Law enforcement agency body and a domestic intelligence agency....
.

In the testimony and his later book, LaMotta admitted to throwing the fight in order to gain favor with the Mafia
Mafia

The Mafia is a Sicily criminal society which is believed to have emerged in late 19th century Sicily. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct....
. All involved agreed the fix was obvious and their staging inept. As LaMotta wrote,
The first round, a couple of belts to his head, and I see a glassy look coming over his eyes. Jesus Christ, a couple of jabs and he's going to fall down? I began to panic a little. I was supposed to be throwing a fight to this guy, and it looked like I was going to end up holding him on his feet ... By [the fourth round], if there was anybody in the Garden who didn't know what was happening, he must have been dead drunk."
The thrown fight and a payment of $20,000 to the Mafia got LaMotta his title bout against Marcel Cerdan
Marcel Cerdan

Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a France pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's as well as Europe's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa....
.

Boxing career

LaMotta won the world title in 1949 in Detroit against Frenchman
French people

French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law....
 Marcel Cerdan
Marcel Cerdan

Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a France pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's as well as Europe's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa....
, who was the world champion. Cerdan, called by many boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 critics the greatest champion ever from France, dislocated his arm in the first round and gave up before the start of the 10th. The official score had LaMotta as winner by a knockout in 10 rounds because the bell had already rung to begin that round when Cerdan announced he was quitting. A rematch was arranged, but while Cerdan was flying back to the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 to fight the rematch, his Air France
Air France

Air France , based in Paris, France, is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance....
 Lockheed Constellation
Lockheed Constellation

The Lockheed Constellation, affectionately known as the "Connie", was a four-engine propeller-driven airliner built by Lockheed between 1943 and 1958 at its Burbank, California, USA, facility....
 crashed at the Azores
Azores

The Azores is a Portugal archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America....
, killing everyone on board. LaMotta met two challengers (Tiberio Mitri
Tiberio Mitri

Tiberio Mitri was an Italy boxer who fought from 1946 to 1957. During his career, Mitri was the Italian and European middleweight champion.On 12 July 1950, Mitri unsuccessfully challenged world middleweight champion Jake LaMotta, losing a 15 round decision....
 and Laurent Dauthuille
Laurent Dauthuille

Laurent Dauthuille was a French people boxing. On September 13, 1950 he fought Jake LaMotta, a boxer he once bested by unanimous decision, for the world middleweight championship....
) and beat them, and then he was challenged by Robinson for their rivalry's sixth fight. Held on February 14, 1951, the fight became known as boxing's version of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
St. Valentine's Day massacre

The Saint Valentine's Day massacre is the name given to the death of seven people as part of a Prohibition in the United States conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago, Illinois, in the winter of 1929: the Neighborhoods of Chicago Italian American gang led by Al Capone and the Neighborhoods of Chicago Irish American gang led...
. Robinson won by a technical knockout in the 13th round, when the fight was stopped with LaMotta lying on the ropes. In 1960, LaMotta was called to testify before a U.S. Senate
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
 sub-committee
List of United States Senate committees

This is a complete list of U.S. Congressional committees that are currently operating in the United States Senate....
 that was looking at underworld influence on the boxing game. LaMotta testified that he had thrown his bout with Billy Fox so the mob would arrange a title bout for him.

In the mid-1950s, LaMotta suffered from a boxing injury and took time off to recover. He was always interested in baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
 and decided to form the Jake LaMotta All-Star team. They played in Sterling Oval which was located between 165th and 164th Streets between Clay and Teller Avenue in the Bronx. He also held professional fights at that field, and his brother Joey
Joey LaMotta

Giuseppe "Joey" LaMotta is the brother and one time manager of former world middleweight boxing champion, Jake LaMotta. Joe was played by Joe Pesci in Raging Bull, the 1980 film that portrayed his brother's turbulent life and career....
 often fought there.

Post-boxing

After retirement, LaMotta bought a few bars and became a stage actor and stand up comedian. He also appeared in over 15 motion pictures, including The Hustler
The Hustler (film)

The Hustler is a 1961 in film American drama film. It tells the story of small-time pool Hustling, "Fast Eddie" Felson, and his desire to prove himself the best player in the country by beating legendary pool player "Minnesota Fats." After initially losing to Fats and getting involved with unscrupulous manager Bert Gordon, Eddie returns t...
, with Paul Newman
Paul Newman

Paul Leonard Newman was an United States actor, film director, entrepreneur, Humanitarianism, and auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations three Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a...
 and Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason

Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr. , whose birth name was John Herbert "Jackie" Gleason, was an American comedian, actor and musician.He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy styling, especially as delivered by his character Ralph Kramden on the sitcom The Honeymooners....
. LaMotta played the bartender.

Fighting style

Jake LaMotta is recognized as having one of the best chins
Chin (boxing)

In boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, a chin refers to a boxer's ability to tolerate physical trauma to the face without being knocked out....
 in boxing. While he was able to absorb punches with little effect, he was also adept at rolling with the punches to minimize the damage. He was recognized for having immense punching power, and was one of the first boxers to adopt the physical "bully" style of fighting, in that he always stayed physically close and in punching range of his opponent, by stalking him around the ring, and sacrificed taking punches himself in order to land his own powerful punches. Due to his aggressive, unrelenting style he was soon dubbed "The Bronx Bull" by fans and journalists alike. LaMotta boasted "No son-of-a-bitch ever knocked me off my feet", although he was knocked down once very late in his career by Danny Nardico. With his superb chin and aggressive prowling approach, LaMotta's style was somewhat similar to that of once former welterweight world champion Antonio Margarito
Antonio Margarito

Antonio Margarito in Torrance, California Is a Mexican American boxer and is a former World Boxing Association Welterweight Champion. He is also a former International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization Welterweight champion....
 of Mexico.

Raging Bull

Hollywood executives approached LaMotta with the idea of a movie about his life, based on LaMotta's 1970 memoir
Memoir

As a literature genre, a memoir , or a reminiscence, forms a subclass of autobiography ? although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are today almost interchangeable....
 Raging Bull: My Story
Raging Bull: My Story

Raging Bull: My Story is a 1970 memoir by middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta. In 1980 the book was adapted to Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese.The book is an autobiography about Jake LaMotta's life as a young teenage criminal, his reformation in prison, his boxing years and his struggle with the mafia who kept the title out of reach, and his...
. The film, Raging Bull, was initially only a minor box office success, but eventually became a huge critical success both for director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese

Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese is an Academy Award-winning American filmmaker, screenwriter, film producer, and film historian. Also affectionately known as "Marty", he is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation and a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Gol...
 and actor Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro

Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. is a two-time Academy Award-winning United States actor, director and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time....
, who gained about 60 pounds (27 kg) during the shooting of the film to play the older LaMotta in the scenes of his later life.

To portray the younger LaMotta, De Niro trained with the real LaMotta until LaMotta felt he was ready to box professionally. De Niro lived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 for three months eating at the finest restaurants in order to gain the sufficient weight to portray LaMotta after retirement. De Niro received an Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actor

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry....
 for Best Actor for his performance.

The movie depicted a violent and self-destructive LaMotta, who once even went as far as beating his own brother, manager Joey LaMotta
Joey LaMotta

Giuseppe "Joey" LaMotta is the brother and one time manager of former world middleweight boxing champion, Jake LaMotta. Joe was played by Joe Pesci in Raging Bull, the 1980 film that portrayed his brother's turbulent life and career....
, accusing him of having an affair with his (Jake's) then-wife, Vickie LaMotta
Vikki LaMotta

Vikki LaMotta , born Beverly Thailer in The Bronx, New York, was the wife of boxing Jake LaMottaShe was portrayed by actress Cathy Moriarty in the Academy Award-winning 1980 film Raging Bull....
 (in real life, this altercation happened between LaMotta and his best friend Pete, not his brother Joey. The Joey character in the film is an amalgam
Amalgam

Amalgam may refer to:* Amalgam , mercury alloy* Amalgam , material of "silver" tooth fillings* Amalgam Comics, publisher* Amalgam, Gauteng, South Africa...
 to simplify the narrative).

Later life

In 1998, his son, Joseph LaMotta
Joseph LaMotta

Joseph LaMotta was the son of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta and a well-known chef.Like his father Joseph Lamotta took up boxing, going so far as to compete on the amateur boxing circuit....
, died in the crash of Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111

Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland....
 off the coast of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada....
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
.

His nephew, John LaMotta, was a member of the Golden Gloves
Golden Gloves

For the honor in Major League Baseball, see Gold Glove.The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States....
 championship tournament.

LaMotta has been active on the speaking and autograph
Autograph

An autograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typesetting document or one transcribed by an amanuensis or a allography; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph....
 circuit, and has published several books about his career, his wife, and his fights with Robinson.

He is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame

The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York....
.

He was ranked 52nd on Ring Magazines list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years
Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years

In 2002, Ring Magazine published a list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years in boxing, as voted by the magazine's writers.#Sugar Ray Robinson...
.
Ring Magazine also ranked him as one of the 10 greatest middleweight
Middleweight

Middleweight is a division, or Boxing weight classes, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s....
s of all-time.

External links