Has anyone seen LaMotta vs Cerdan?

^He wasn't. I think the boxing world would have benefited a lot from his career panning out more... But he wasn't all that. And klompton mentions those 2 other french guys who dont get the same respect...

 

Klompy is defending Jake.

Laurent gave La Motta a hard night, before Jake decided to stop playing games and put him to sleep. Villemaine belted Jake in a non-title affair, only to be slapped around by Dave Sands a couple of months later.

Cerdan would have toppled both Laurant and Villemaine, and picked Sands to pieces; just as Sands would have done to Jake.

 

Lamotta was fighting with an injury nearly just as bad as cerdan's. Lamotta's left hand was fried, yet he continued to pummel cerdan all night despite the immense pain. Lamotta was a tough mother trucker.

Lamotta TKO 10 Cerdan...deal with it. Cerdan will never be rated higher than Jake Lamotta.

 

Great post!


Yep, Cerdan had a very carefully managed career. He was very protected, and selective of whom he chose to fight. He never even proved himself the best frenchmen of his own era!(Robert Villemon anyone?) Lamotta on the otherhand, had no trouble taking on anyone anytime. He took on a handful of the murders row fighters(the only white middleweight of the era to do so). I think overall, Lamotta has a much better resume than cerdan, destroyed cerdan in their h2h meeting, and I think is just the plain better all around fighter.

No way Cerdan rates over Lamotta based on their careers. One can argue h2h, but I don't think that has any merit.

 

Well, it was a push or a throw that deposited Cerdan on the canvas, most eyewitnesses agree.

 

What are you basing this performance off of? His loss to Cyrille Delanoit? Or was it his 3 knockdowns and near knockout loss to the average Anton Raddick?

 

A left hook may have had something to do with it. Lamotta had already hurt cerdan badly early in the round and was punishing him...a preview of what was in store the rest of the night..because let's face it, Jake Lamotta was not going to get tired. Cerdan was made for Jake Lamotta. Cerdan was skilled, but he loved to get in a good brawl...Problem is he is now facing a bigger busier stronger better middleweight than he ever fought before. Cerdan would battle and brawl Jake on the inside but jake was much stronger and busier..and cerdan's best punch couldn't hurt jake. Jake beats him everytime. One of the reasons I rate Jake so highly on my all time middleweight list is he dispatched such a skilled puncher and ATG fighter like Cerdan.

 

I don't deny that LaMotta had an injury. Yes, he was a tough fighter.
But we have no way of comparing the one injury to the other, we have no idea what would have happened if they "swapped" injuries, so I don't see the relevance.
What we do know is that Cerdan's injured did seem to prevent him from the left. We know that LaMotts's did not.
It's easy to be on the safe side of the ropes and say, "That's because Jake was tougher" ... but there's no good reason to question Cerdan's toughness.

LaMotta TKO10 Cerdan is a fact thqt I have never denied.

 

We do know jake was in tremendous pain, and it clearly had a negative effect on his power the rest of the fight. Also, cerdan wasn't completely useless with the left arm, he threw it from time to time. Don't make it look like he was in a shoulder sling swinging away with one arm for 9 rounds.

 

Just two pages ago you were saying he was thrown down, and you seemed to be pleased with that throw as a display of LaMotta's superiority. ....

... now it's been pointed out that throwing is illegal, you're claiming a left hook.



I agree LaMotta was a great fighter. But let's not pretend Cerdan's injury - by fluke or foul - wasn't a factor in the fight.

 

I agree. You can't make too much out of a fight where one fighter was severly injured early on.

 

I just threw the left hook notion out there. I don't think for one second what Lamotta did was illegal. Cerdan tried to challenge a bigger, stronger, better fighter and got physically dominated.

 

After no later than the second round, the champion was unable to use his left, which in all his other fights had been his best punch. The Frenchman had tried with vague and desperate hope, to keep his treasured title while using only his right hand, a secondary weapon."--The Detroit News 6/17/1949

Ringsiders noticed that Cerdan was punching only with his right hand, and Harry Raskin, Detroit second, rushed to LaMotta's corner to whisper "The right! The Right. He broke his left hand."--Detroit Times

The films support these primary source reports as well. He may have made a feeble attempt to throw it now and then, but obviously was unable. His left was clearly useless.

 

LaMotta admitted he was aware that Cerdan lost the effective use of his left hand early in the contest. "About the third round I noticed he wasn't hitting hard with his left"--Detroit Free Press

 

That about sums it up :good