Curious to hear some of the forum veterans opinion on this one. Who do you think would win and how would the fight go?
What is it with these threads today? Jake LaMotta was a big middleweight bordering on light heavyweight. He'd fit snugly into today's 168lbs division. Henry Armstrong was a small welterweight and better as a junior lightweight. Whereas most champions starve themselves to make weight, Armstrong needed to gorge in order to stay above the lightweight limit. You're talking about a 130-135lbs fighter against one weighing 160-168lbs. Both have come-forward styles, except one is thirty pounds (plus) thicker and naturally bigger. Only goes one way.
I'd expect LaMotta to win a decision over 10 rounds, because he was remarkably strong and significantly bigger than Armstrong. I would expect Armstrong to be competitive though, this would be a good hard fight.
The thread is not rational.To compare a large 160 pound LaMotta with a 140 lb Armstrong is silly. Henry had his own problems with the 147 pound Zivic...
LaMotta had problems with Zivic too, and with the 145 pound Robinson. Armstrong was only 5'5 though, so he'd be given up too much size, IMO. And his style would play into Lamotta's hands. He'd put up a decent fight though.
Can't do it mate. How would you fathom the difference in Armstrong's hand speed if he suddenly gained twenty five pounds? How much less power LaMotta would possess if he were a lightweight? How tall would he be? Too complicated. If you want to rate fighters on a pound-for-pound level that's fine, because you can look at their accomplishments and footage and judge how good they were at their weight, but hypothetically tampering with a fighter's physical make up never works.
adding gas to the fire question: is jake lamotta, who drained himself severly to make 160, that much better than garcia? if it's held at 160, is he that many levels above?
Now you're talking. Pound for pound Armstrong batters LaMotta. Armstrong piled up points for three minutes of a round,whilst Jake would take seconds off playing 'possum". Armstrong top 5 featherweight all-time,LaMotta would lose to top 10 middleweights IMO...
totally agree and i'd take it further a bit: armstrong top 5 feather, top 5 lightweight (potential), top 5 welter (potential) lamotta has never terribly impressed me and would lose to a LOT of top 20 middleweight and many, many "lesser" fighters who could move with a decent workrate
