If Jake Lamotta never won the world title would he have still been considerd a legend

Yes no question he would still be a legend. The bulk of his resume precedes his title reign and he has a few good scalps following the sixth fight with Robinson as well, most notably his excellent revenge win over Bob Murphy.

I mean the guy has wins over Murphy, Holman Williams, Tommy Bell (two or three I can't remember), Teddy Yaroz, Robert Villeman, Satterfield, Jose Basora (one of the top ten most underrated fighters ever imo), and three out of four over Zivic.

Hell the wins over Zivic and the win over Robinson pretty much guarantee him legendary status alone. There's no question his resume would be a lot less without the win over Cerdan, who was seen as almost supernatural at the time, and the win over Dauthelle is another defining moment. But any way you slice it the guy was a legend.

 

Yes.....I think he would....Like Funny man said, his wins are great....

 

Yeah Vipers I think Cerdan is probably the consensus second greatest French boxer ever behind Georges Carpentier. Who knows, maybe he could have surpassed Carpentier if he hadn't died so suddenly. He was considered almost unbeatable after he almost killed Tony Zale in one of the most brutal beat downs of all time.

And it didn't hurt that Cerdan was banging Edith Piaf.

 

not at all .

 

He'd have just been an uncrowned champion and still the best mw out there. Due to his style he's always gonna lose 10 rounders to certain guys but in a 15 round fight few could beat him for a small period.

 

Which is exactly Ross Puritty's story except that Puritty rarely even get 12 rounders .
1 can also check n c 4 himself that 6 out of 11 of Oliver McCall's "losses" were in fights that did not go d full 12 n not because of a stoppage .

 

The difference here, I think, is that jake was beating better guys than anyone else in the division.

Ross had two great victories over morrison and wlad but unfortunately that's where it ends; he was content being a journeyman.

Oliver achieved more but still never hit top spot in the division; even during his best run he was still outboxed over the distance by larry and frank.

 

He was never the best MW out there with Burley, Marshall, Prime Holman, Charles and ofcourse 1 Sugar Ray in his division

 

PowerPuncher,

Give Lamotta credit. He had balls of steel. The only white middleweight of the era to take on the black murders row.

 

I disagree.

My views are on the timeline thread I did for the mw division.

 

Not by Larry .
And Ross also stopped Jorge Luis Gonzalez and KOd Joe Hipp .
Not 2 mention d impressive amount and quality of fighters that he fought , went d distance with , and would have stopped some of them if given more time 2 do so . And bar 1 , all of his stoppage losses were due 2 cuts .
Content being a journeyman ? I doubt it even if he said things that can reinforce it himself . Sometimes ppl excuse things just so they won't live in regrets . Ross was a case of bad management . Some1 should have known that he was more of d late stoppage type than anything else , but sadly those who understood it best were d managers / promoters of his opponents . Especially after Wlad Klit .

 

By my cards larry took a decision.

Look at the decisions he made, he took fights at short notice; even the wlad fight he took with a week's notice.

Maybe he got shelved after his big victory but for the most part he was content with short notice fights.

 

Because he was a warrior and not a good businessman , and very ill managed . Plus he was desperate and needed d money bad .