In the second defence of his title LaMotta takes on Laurent Dauthuille, Detroit 13th September 1950. After losing his title to Sugar Ray Robinson just over one year earlier, in his third fight on the comeback trail LaMotta meets Eugene Hairston, Detroit 5th March 1952. Less than one month after his battle with Hairston Jake LaMotta meets Norman Hayes for the second time, to avenge a previous defeat, Detroit 9th April 1952. Still searching for another championship chance Jake LaMotta fights Bob Murphy Detroit 11th June 1952. In the last of his 106 professional fights Jake LaMotta confronts Billy Kilgore Miami Beach 14th April 1954. Jake LaMotta: Boxing Legends
After his defeat by Billy Kilgore, LaMotta brought down the curtain on the 106 fights of his career. In later life he took up acting, but became a boxing outcast when he admitted taking a dive during a bout with Billy Fox in November 1947.
However, the legend of the Bronx Bull was established for all time when he was portrayed by Robert de Niro in Raging Bull, a film based on LaMotta’s 1970 autobiography. ibid.
96) Jake LaMotta Lost TKO13: Radio Commentary - Fight Commentary TV - Lou Duva -
v Jake LaMotta VI 14th February 1951 Middleweight The St Valentine’s Day Massacre Chicago [r1] ... It should be the dream, Bob, of the last ten or fifteen years ... Robinson continues to stab and run ... Here is LaMotta trying to bully Robby away ... LaMotta seems to stagger Robby a bit ... [r8] ... Jake just continues to stalk ... Robby with a flurry of lefts and rights to the head ... [r9] ... LaMotta following him around ... LaMotta staggered ... Robby very accurate now with his left and his right ... [r11] ... It almost bounced the mouthpiece out of LaMotta’s face ... And then Robby out of it ... La Motta falls into a very tired clinch ... A left hand and a right uppercut from Sugar Ray ... It’s a tired LaMotta now; Robby calling his shots ... Robinson right uppercut ... And Jake LaMotta is still on his feet: what is keeping him up there? ... [r12] ... Jake LaMotta with that chin of his running into two fight hands ... Robinson pounds him to the mid-section ... Robinson beleaguers him with lefts and rights ... It’s one of the most merciless beatings I have ever seen ... Robinson tees off on him ... He won’t go down! ... He is utterly powerless to defend himself ... [r13] ... He is tagged immediately ... LaMotta’s head almost snapped off his shoulders ... Robinson with a long overhand right ... Two, three, four, five left hooks on the nose ... And they are going to stop it! Ray Robinson is the new Middleweight champion of the world! Russ Hodges, radio broadcast
v Sugar Ray Robinson VI 14th February 1951 Middleweight The St Valentine’s Day Massacre Chicago [r1] … La Motta right after Ray Robinson … body shot by Jake LaMotta … [r2] … Jake LaMotta has never been down in his career … Body shot: I think that hurt Jake LaMotta … Nice left hook at the bell … [r3] … Straight left [Robinson] … the hand speed … look at the body shots … right hand scores … [r5] … Right hand lead that time by LaMotta … Ray Robinson lands a nice combination … LaMotta continues to come forward … right hand to the ribcage again … [r6] … LaMotta bangs away … good right hand … comes forward … Jake landing some good body shots … [r7] … I’ve got this fight dead even … LaMotta with a left hook … Right hand scored [Robinson] … uppercut … left hook … [r8] … Ray Robinson tries to pick up the pace … nice uppercut … digs to the body … [r9] … Uses the jab [Robinson] … LaMotta throws the right … nice left hook … right hand to the ear … Robinson has really taken command … left hook … right hand … uppercut … another big right … [r10] … Look at the combination … LaMotta keeps coming forward … A whirlwind of problems … nice shot … [r11] … LaMotta’s face does not look good … Look at this action for Jake LaMotta! … What a terrific fight … Wow! … the comeback of Ray Robinson … nails him to the body … Look at the shots he’s landing … [r12] … Heavy shots … target practice … left hook … really hurt Jake LaMotta … the uppercut … right hand … he’s banged the rib again … [r13] … Big right hand … Jake is almost defenceless … Shots landed at will … Right hand … and he has stopped it … What a great night for Sugar Ray Robinson … US fight commentary
I think Jake LaMotta’s line was probably the best: he fought Sugar Ray so many times he got sugar diabetes, you know. And every fight was a great fight. Lou Duva
[8.7] MARCEL CERDAN 117-113(66)-4-0: Harry Carpenter - The Ring online -
He went on to defend the title against Jake LaMotta – lost, and then was tragedy ... His plane crashed in the Azores. Harry Carpenter
Cerdan: 60 Years Later, Legend Endures: The French were reeling after World War II. The Germans had occupied their land and stolen their dignity, the latter of which was slow to return even after the Third Reich fell. Then along came the son of a butcher from Morocco with potent fists and an inspirational fighting spirit to help raise the self esteem of a proud people.
Marcel Cerdan was a great boxer who arrived on the scene when his countrymen needed him most, winning titles with savage efficiency and millions of hearts in the process. And then, as if the French hadn’t suffered enough, he was taken away at his very peak to become as much a legend as a man.
Tuesday marks the 60th anniversary of the plane crash in 1949 that tragically ended the life of France’s greatest boxer and one of its most-important post-war public figures. He was only 33.
‘France was just coming out of the war,’ said boxing writer Aurlien Bouisset of the sports daily L’Equippe, which is Paris-based Paris. ‘France needed a hero for its self esteem. This little guy, with his fists, went to America, won two, three fights over there and then knocked out Tony Zale. He won the world title in America, the country that freed France.
‘It was a way to say, Yes, we can have better days.’
Cerdan was born in Algeria to French parents and moved as a child to Morocco, where his father promoted amateur boxing cards and two older brothers preceded him into the ring. He turned pro at 18 in 1934, winning his first 45 fights first in North Africa and then in France. He won the French welterweight title in his last fight of that streak, in 1939.
Later that year, World War II began when Hitler’s army invaded Poland. Cerdan soon enlisted in the French Navy and didn’t box in 1940 but returned to the ring when the Germans, occupying France, disbanded his unit. He boxed a few times in German-controlled territory but fled to North Africa when his first-round knockout of Spaniard Jose Ferrer in 1942 irked the German authorities.
He fought in front of American fans, mostly troops, for the first time in Inter-Allied boxing tournaments in 1944 in Italy. Those who saw him would never forget.
‘I remember soldiers I knew as a kid coming back from the African theater who saw Marcel Cerdan come through and do exhibitions,’ said boxing historian Bert Sugar. ‘They thought he was the greatest fighter they’d ever seen. He was such a great fighter, more than great. I’m sure older people who were there and are still around still feel that way today.’
Cerdan was a dominating force after the war ended, winning the French and European middleweight titles. However, his greatest glory came in 1948, when he challenged Zale for the middleweight championship of the world before a reported 20,000 fans at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Frenchman, a 2-1 underdog, wore Zale down with constant pressure – as was his style – and ended it with a left hook that sent Zale slumping against the ropes and onto is backside. The Man of Steel had to be helped to his corner and couldn’t come out for the 12th round, making Cerdan the first non-American to win the middleweight title in the 20th century.
Afterward, his countrymen went wild. A large crowd met him at the airport upon his return to Paris and The New York Times reported that 300,000 Parisians lined the streets during a motor parade in his honor, which ‘brought the city’s business to a standstill’. It was one of the grandest celebrations ever accorded a French hero.
As Sugar put it, at that moment, ‘Cerdan was their Babe Ruth.’
‘I think we’ve seen something like this only twice in France for a sportsman,’ Bouisset said. ‘The first time was Cerdan. The second time was when France won the football World Cup in 1998. He was the most popular boxer, no, sportsman of his time.’
The fact Cerdan had a love affair with iconic singer Edith Piaf in the last year of his life even though he was married and had children only added to his allure, certainly as much as any Hollywood coupling has in the US.
Cerdan, a simple man, became a member of the artistic community and began to transcend boxing. Sugar said, ‘She was her country’s voice and he was its strength.’ Piaf would be by his side the final year of his life and play an unfortunate role in his death.
Cerdan fought only three more times after winning the championship, once in London, once in Casablanca and finally in the first defense of his title against Jake LaMotta on June 16, 1949 in Detroit. The fight in effect ended in the first round, when LaMotta wrestled Cerdan to the canvas and damaged the Frenchman’s shoulder. Cerdan fought bravely with one hand the rest of the fight – against an all-time great, mind you – but searing pain forced him to retire after the ninth round.
He finished his career with a record of 111-4 (with 65 knockouts). Two were disqualifications, one was a horrible decision (against Cyrille Delannoit) and the fourth was the result of an injury. Thus, as boxing historian Patrick Myler wrote, ‘It can be safely stated that he never met his master in the ring’.
A rematch with LaMotta was scheduled for late in 1949 in the US but Cerdan never made it there alive. He was booked on a flight to New York to visit Piaf, who was performing there at the time, but she convinced him to fly in a few days earlier than planned because she missed him. The plane he boarded in Paris on October 27, a Lockheed L-749 Constellation, crashed in the Azores – a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean – where it was supposed to refuel.
Everyone on board, 11 crew members and 37 passengers, were killed. That night, Piaf, obviously devastated, sang the classic romantic ballad L’Hymne á l’amour – The Anthem of Love – for Cerdan and then famously collapsed in tears.