Jake LaMotta will go down as one of the toughest to grace a boxing ring – but he cannot be described as a loveable man
The Raging Bull had an incredible career but was not the easiest to warm to outside of the squared circle
JAKE LAMOTTA, The Bronx Bull, has never been considered one of the great world middleweight champions but he was certainly the toughest.
Throughout his 106 fight career he absorbed tremendous punishment and considering he was hit on the head by hundreds of punches living to 95 must make him a medical miracle.
I met Jake on numerous occasions when I was covering the big fights in New York and Las Vegas and found he wasn't a man you could warm to.
The impression I got was that he was always on a short fuse ready to explode into violence at the slightest provocation.
In fact the vibes he gave was that he was exactly like the character portrayed by Robert De Niro,in Raging Bull, the Oscar-winning film of his life.
The last time I met LaMotta was when I was inducted into the American Hall of Fame in Canastota four years ago.
He was there with a very attractive young woman.
Not bad I thought for a man of 92.
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To my astonishment when I was introduced to Denise she told me they had been married six months. She was his seventh wife!
La Motta will always have a place in boxing history because besides winning the world title against Frenchman Marcel Cerdan he was the first man to defeat the immortal Sugar Ray Robinson - pound-for-pound the greatest fighter of all time.
They met a total of six times - and Robinson won the other five.
Their last fight was the most memorable when Robinson brutally battered him to a 13 round defeat to take his crown.
It was on February 14, 1951 at Chicago stadium and it became known as boxing's St.Valentine's Day massacre.
As Robinson was pulled off him by the referee La Mottta through bruised and bloody lips defiantly snarled "You couldn't put me down Ray - you couldn't put me down."
Whenever he was asked about Sugar Ray, Jake would say "I met him so many times it's a wonder I didn't end up with diabetes."
La Motta - because of his Mafia connections The Mob paid him $20,000 to throw a fight against Billy Fox in 1947 on the understanding they would get him his chance with Cerdan - may have been a box-office draw in his prime.
But though he was a sought after personality once he had retired from the ring unfortunately the truth is he could never be described as a lovable man.
