Thread: Former Middleweight Champion Jake LaMotta dead at 95

Jake LaMotta, former middleweight champion and subject of the 1980 movie "Raging Bull," has died at the age of 95.

LaMotta died because of complications from pneumonia and was in a nursing home in Miami, his wife, Denise Baker, told ABC. LaMotta's wife said the family is in the planning stages of his memorial and funeral.

"He was a great man, sensitive, and had eyes that danced right up to the end. I love him; God rest his soul," Baker told ABC. "And he never went down!"

Known for his battles with Sugar Ray Robinson and his portrayal by Robert De Niro in "Raging Bull," LaMotta held the middleweight title from 1949 to 1951 and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

"Rest in Peace, Champ," De Niro said in a statement.

LaMotta went 83-19-4 with 30 knockouts in a career that lasted from 1941 to 1954. He fought multiple times in a month several times, earning a reputation as a brawler and the nickname "Bronx Bull."

On Oct. 2, 1942, at New York's Madison Square Garden, LaMotta faced Robinson for the first of their six ferocious fights. Robinson, fighting as a welterweight, was 35-0 with 27 knockouts at the time. He bloodied LaMotta and won a 10-round unanimous decision.

After the fight, Robinson said, "I never fought a fighter as strong as he is."

The following year, LaMotta and Robinson fought twice in the same month at Detroit's Olympia Stadium. On Feb. 5, 1943, LaMotta handed Robinson his first defeat, with a 10-round unanimous decision that included the Bronx Bull knocking Robinson through the ropes in the eighth round. Three weeks later, Robinson would take the rematch, winning a unanimous decision despite being floored in the seventh round.

Robinson would defeat LaMotta twice in 1945, including a 12-round split decision.
http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/i...ll-dies-age-95

I remember watching part of the fight between LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson. Now that's boxing! These jokers today don't know what real boxing is. I truly miss the great boxing matches of the past. Men like LaMotta, Joe Louis, Dempsey, Marciano, Robinson, Jack Johnson, and Ali, were true to the sport. I'd heard years ago that LaMotta was a Christian. That's good to know.