Editing Jake LaMotta (section)

==Boxing career==
As a [[middleweight]] in his first fifteen bouts, LaMotta went 14–0–1 (3 KOs). On September 24, 1941, he almost defeated [[Jimmy Reeves]] by a knockout in Reeves' hometown of [[Cleveland]], Ohio, but the referee counted to nine before he was interrupted by the boxing bell, signaling the end of the match, and by a split decision, LaMotta controversially lost to Reeves, despite the latter being knocked down. Chaos erupted after the decision was announced. Fights broke out around the ring and the crowd continued to riot for 20 minutes. The arena's organist unsuccessfully tried to calm down the crowd by playing the "[[Star Spangled Banner]]". However, while the crowd continued to riot, the violence outside the ring led to many arrests.

One month later, LaMotta and Reeves fought again in the same arena. LaMotta lost a much less controversial decision. A third match between the two took place on March 19, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan. The first five rounds were close, though Reeves was struggling in the fourth. In the sixth round, LaMotta floored Reeves, who was only down for a second. Once the fight resumed, LaMotta landed a left on Reeves' chin, sending him down face-first. Reeves was blinking his eyes and shaking his head as the referee counted him out.

===LaMotta vs. Robinson I–V===
{{See also|Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta|}}
LaMotta fought [[Sugar Ray Robinson]] in Robinson's middleweight debut at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]], New York City, October 2, 1942.<ref name="Sweet Thunder">Sweet Thunder</ref> LaMotta knocked Robinson down in the first round of the fight. Robinson got up and took control over much of the fight, winning via a unanimous 10-round decision.<ref name="Sweet Thunder"/>

A 10-round rematch took place February 5, 1943, at [[Olympia Stadium, Detroit|Olympia Stadium]] in Detroit, Michigan.<ref name="Sweet Thunder"/> In the eighth round, LaMotta landed a right to Robinson's head and a left to his body, sending him through the ropes. Robinson was saved by the bell at the count of nine. LaMotta, who was already leading on the scorecards before knocking Robinson out of the ring, pummeled and [[Boxing scoring|outpointed]] him for the rest of the fight. Robinson had trouble keeping LaMotta at bay.<ref>[http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Sugar_Ray_Robinson_vs._Jake_LaMotta_(2nd_meeting) "Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta (2nd meeting)"]. Boxrec.com (May 10, 2006). Retrieved on April 7, 2012.</ref> LaMotta won via unanimous decision, giving Robinson the first defeat of his career.

The victory was short-lived, as the two met on February 26, 1943, in what was another 10-round fight, once again at Olympia Stadium in Robinson's former home of Detroit.<ref name="Sweet Thunder"/> Robinson was knocked down for a nine-count in Round 7. Robinson later stated, "He really hurt me with a left in the seventh round. I was a little dazed and decided to stay on the deck." Robinson won the close fight by unanimous decision, using a dazzling left jab and jarring uppercuts.<ref>[http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Sugar_Ray_Robinson_vs._Jake_LaMotta_(3rd_meeting) "Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta (3rd meeting)"]. Boxrec.com (May 10, 2006). Retrieved on April 7, 2012.</ref> LaMotta said the fight was given to Robinson because he would be inducted into the army the next day.<ref>{{cite news|first=Paul|last=Gibson|title=How Sugar Ray Robinson made Jake La Motta his bloody Valentine in 1951|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/the-balls-of-wrath/2016/feb/08/boxing-sugar-ray-robinson-jake-la-motta-valentine-1951|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=February 8, 2016}}</ref>

A fourth fight, the duo's final 10 rounder, took place nearly two years after the third, on February 23, 1945, at Madison Square Garden, New York.<ref>Box-Rec & Sweet Thunder</ref> Robinson won again by a unanimous decision.

LaMotta and Robinson had their fifth bout at [[Comiskey Park]], Chicago, Illinois on September 26, 1945. Robinson won by a very controversial split decision, contested over 12 rounds.<ref>Sweet Thunder & Box-Rec</ref> The decision was severely booed by the 14,755 people in attendance. LaMotta later said in his autobiography that the decision was widely criticized by several newspapers and boxing publishers. Robinson said afterward, "This was the toughest fight I've ever had with LaMotta."<ref>[http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Sugar_Ray_Robinson_vs._Jake_LaMotta_(5th_meeting) "Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta (5th meeting)"]. Boxrec.com (May 10, 2006). Retrieved on April 7, 2012.</ref>

===LaMotta vs. Fox===
On November 14, 1947, LaMotta was knocked out in the fourth round by [[Billy Fox (boxer)|Billy Fox]]. Suspecting the fight was [[Match fixing|fixed]], the [[New York State Athletic Commission]] withheld purses for the fight and suspended LaMotta. The fight with Fox would come back to haunt him later in life, during a case with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]].

In his testimony and in his later book, LaMotta admitted to throwing the fight to gain favor with the [[Italian-American Mafia|Mafia]]. All involved agreed the fix was obvious and their staging inept.

As LaMotta wrote,
<blockquote>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.<ref name=ReelLife>{{cite web|first=Jeff|last=Merron|url=https://www.espn.com/page2/s/closer/020703.html|title=Reel Life: 'Raging Bull'|website=[[ESPN.com]]|date=7 January 2008}}</ref></blockquote>

The thrown fight and a payment of $20,000 to the Mafia got LaMotta his title bout against World Middleweight Champion [[Marcel Cerdan]].<ref name=Congress>{{cite book|editor1-first=Edmund P.|editor1-last=Edmonds|editor2-first=William H.|editor2-last=Manz|publisher=William S. Hein & Co., Inc.|location=Buffalo, New York|date=2005|title=Congress and Boxing: A Legislative History 1960–2003|volume=1}}</ref>

===LaMotta vs. Cerdan===
LaMotta won the World Middleweight title on June 16, 1949, in Detroit, Michigan, defeating [[French people|Frenchman]] [[Marcel Cerdan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/middle.htm|title=The Lineal Middleweight Champions|publisher=The Cyber Boxing Zone Encyclopedia}}</ref> LaMotta won the first round (in which he knocked Cerdan down), Cerdan the second, and the third was even. At that point it became clear something was wrong. Cerdan dislocated his arm in the first round, apparently damaged in the knockdown, and gave up before the start of the 10th round. LaMotta damaged his left hand in the fifth round, but still landed 104 punches in the ninth round, whereas Cerdan hardly threw a punch.<ref>[http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Marcel_Cerdan_vs._Jake_LaMotta "Marcel Cerdan vs. Jake LaMotta"], Boxrec.com, May 30, 2007; retrieved September 8, 2015.</ref> 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 to fight the rematch, his [[1949 Air France Lockheed Constellation crash|Air France Lockheed Constellation crashed]] in the [[Azores]], killing everyone on board.<ref>[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19491028-0 Lockheed L-749-79-46 Constellation F-BAZN's accident description and causes (Flight Safety Foundation)]. Aviation-safety.net (October 28, 1949). Retrieved on September 20, 2017.</ref>

===World Middleweight Champion===
LaMotta made his first title defense against [[Tiberio Mitri]] on July 7, 1950, at Madison Square Garden, New York. LaMotta retained his title via unanimous decision. LaMotta's next defense came on September 13, 1950, against [[Laurent Dauthuille]]. Dauthuille had previously beaten LaMotta by decision before LaMotta became world champion. By the fifteenth round, Dauthuille was ahead on all scorecards (72–68, 74–66, 71–69) and seemed to be about to repeat a victory against LaMotta. LaMotta hit Dauthuille with a barrage of punches that sent him down against the ropes toward the end of the round. Dauthuille was counted out with 13 seconds left in the fight.<ref name=fatlady>{{cite book|last=Peretz|first=Howard G.|title=It Ain't Over 'Till The Fat Lady Sings: The 100 Greatest Sports Finishes of All Time|publisher=Barnes and Nobles Books}}</ref> This fight was named [[Ring Magazine fights of the year|Fight of the Year]] for 1950 by [[The Ring (magazine)|''The Ring'']] magazine.

===Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of boxing===
{{Main|Jake LaMotta vs. Sugar Ray Robinson VI}}
The sixth and final fight between LaMotta and Robinson took place at [[Chicago Stadium]]. This fight was scheduled for 15 rounds and was for the middleweight title.<ref name="Sweet Thunder"/> Held on February 14, 1951, Saint Valentine's Day, the fight became known as boxing's version of the [[Saint Valentine's Day Massacre]]. In the last few rounds, LaMotta began to take a horrible beating and was soon unable to defend himself from Robinson's powerful blows. But LaMotta refused to go down. Robinson won by a [[technical knockout]] in the 13th round, when the fight was stopped.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Parkinson |first=Nick |date=2016-02-14 |title=Rewind to 1951: St. Valentine's Day Massacre |url=https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/14775912/st-valentine-day-massacre-jake-lamotta-vs-sugar-ray-robinson-rewind-1951 |access-date= |website=ESPN.com |language=en}}</ref>

===Light heavyweight===
LaMotta moved up to [[light heavyweight]] after losing his world middleweight title. He had poor results at first. He lost his debut against [[Irish Bob Murphy|Bob Murphy]], lost a split decision to Norman Hayes, and drew with Gene Hairston in his first three bouts. In his next three fights, LaMotta had rematches with Hayes, Hairston, and Murphy, and defeated all of them by unanimous decisions.

On December 31, 1952, LaMotta had his next fight against [[Danny Nardico]]. He knocked LaMotta down for the only time in his career (not counting his thrown 1947 fight) by a right hand in the seventh round. LaMotta got up and was beaten against a corner by Nardico until the bell rang. LaMotta's corner stopped the bout before the eighth round began.<ref>[http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Jake_LaMotta_vs._Danny_Nardico "Jake LaMotta vs. Danny Nardico"], Boxrec.com; accessed September 8, 2015.</ref>

Following that fight, LaMotta took time off; when he returned, in early 1954,<ref>"Giacobe LaMotta," in: Dana R. Barnes (Ed.), ''Notable Sports Figures''. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2004. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, September 22, 2017. "He had no matches in 1953 and fought his final three in 1954."</ref> he knocked out his first two opponents, Johnny Pretzie (TKO 4) and Al McCoy (KO 1), but a controversial split decision loss to Billy Kilgore on April 14, 1954, convinced him to retire.<ref>Brady, James (September&nbsp;21, 2017). "[https://www.sbnation.com/2017/9/21/16342166/jake-lamotta-raging-bull-dies-sugar-ray-robinson-fight-videos Jake LaMotta's best fights should be remembered more than 'Raging Bull']". ''[[SBNation]]''. sbnation.com. Retrieved September 22, 2017.</ref>