Jake was good.He fought in a very intensley competitive era in boxing history.There were a lot of fighters around, and a lot of fight clubs .A boxer had a whole mess of people to beat to get to the money fights, and there were only eight weight classes , one champ per weight class, so winning a championship was much more difficult, and meant so much more.Even back then there were fighters that were routinely avoided, mostly black, and Jake took most of them on.Out of six fights with the greatest of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson, five were close, and he won one, maybe deserved to win one or two more.When Lamotta beat Ray it was the Sugar mans first loss in 41 fights and Robinson would go unbeaten for the next 8 years and 88 fights.Lamotta was world middleweight champion beating Marcel Cerdan who had 111 wins and 3 losses at the time,and Jake was champ for two years.He knocked out Bob Satterfield who beat Ezzard Charles.Rocky Marcianco thought Jake was the best he'd ever seen.Jake had an iron jaw, and under rated boxing skills.Jake had his bad moments, sure, and was notorious for throwing the Billy Fox fight, but his accomplishments made boxing history, he was involved in two Ring Magazine fights of the year, and he competed with not only the best fighter ever, but a whole bunch of all time greats,and contenders from three divisions.Jake was good.
much better than people think great jaw, great determination his power is overated but it wasnt his knock out power that you were scared of. it was his abilty to take tons of punishment then come back right as rain. good jab for a man his hieght(he actually out jabbed ray robinson in 3 of the fights) i agree with flatnose that he had underated skills..he wasnt a sugar ray clay jones jr but he could definatly outbox you if you didnt have the skill set.
As far as I know, only by Danny Nardico, at the tail-end of his career. But somebody else may be able to shed more light on it.
It's a myth. There were more than 8 weight classes and more than one champ per weight class. LaMotta supposedly wrote that in a foreword to Archie Moore bio, but he was simply wrong on these statements.
