[GIF] Jake Lamotta displaying skill, poise, and finesse

Lamotta was an absolutely great fighter. One of the more underrated middleweights imo. He had very good defense, great judge of distance, and an underrated combination puncher. I think he gets written off a lot because of the movie Raging Bull and because if you just glance at his resume he has a loss here and there to guys that the average boxing fan doesn't know much about/that weren't top shelf.

 

Man, he was good.

 

People who think LaMotta was just a face first brawler should watch his rematch with the much bigger Bob Murphy in 1952 to see his guile. He fights one of the slickest, smartest examples of staying in the pocket and counterpunching youll see and almost knocks out the powerpunching murphy who was just off a lhw title loss to maxim. Watching him batter murphy with counters and come within a whisker of stopping him is a thing of beauty. Youd never guess Lamotta would only have 4 more fights and lose 2 of them, one of those losses coming to a guy Murphy had stopped in 4 rds.

 

I like how LaMotta corrected people about his defense, " If I was really getting hit like that, I wouldn't be here."

 

He was definately slicker than given credit for but when a guy got through his defense he still had that legendary chin to back him up.

 

I prefer this gif of jake slipping his way around Sugar Ray's multiple left hooks. https://i.imgur.com/vV2M5dS.mp4 It's something you'd expect to see a slick defender like James Toney to do. I'd never watched much Lamotta before the article and his reputation as a face first brawler preceded him, but it is just beautiful. My perception of Lamotta changed totally when I actually saw him fight.

 

Him vs GGG would be a bloodbath regardless of who wins.

 

If you want to watch a fight that illustrates LaMottas incredible abilities take a look at his second bout with Bob Murphy in 1952. LaMotta not only was as tough and rough as they come he also really knew how to FIGHT and fight cute.

 

He sure had a large head. He's like all head in there!

Underrated, too bad he wasn't a bigger puncher.

 

To be honest, I was more impressed with the other guy in terms of technique in the clip. Who was he?

 

Ha,ha yeah never mind skill, poise and finesse, that was the first thing I noticed as well. That head look far too big for his body.

 

Norman Hayes