Jake LaMotta

Jake LaMotta (born July 10, 1922, New York, New York, U.S.—died September 19, 2017, Aventura, Florida) was an American boxer and world middleweight boxing champion (1949–51) whose stamina and fierceness in the ring earned him the nickname “the Bronx Bull.” Lacking finesse, he often allowed himself to take a severe beating before ferociously turning on his foe. His opponents failed to knock him down in 106 professional fights.

(Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.)

LaMotta grew up in a Bronx slum and turned to boxing while in jail. His first professional bout was in 1941, and on February 5, 1943, he gained national recognition by handing Sugar Ray Robinson his first defeat. This victory came in the second of six famous bouts between the two fighters, the rest of which LaMotta lost.

After a seven-month suspension for deliberately losing a fight, LaMotta returned to contend for the middleweight title. On June 16, 1949, he defeated Marcel Cerdan in Detroit for the world middleweight championship. He successfully defended the title two times the following year (on July 12 against Tiberio Mitri and September 13 against Laurent Dauthuille) before losing in Chicago to Robinson on February 14, 1951, in their final matchup. LaMotta retired from the ring in 1954 with 83 wins (30 by knockout), 19 losses, and 4 draws.

His autobiography, Raging Bull (1970), was made into a movie, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro as LaMotta, in 1980. LaMotta later acted in a number of films, including the Paul Newman vehicle The Hustler (1961), and toured as a stand-up comedian. In 1990 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.