Jake LaMotta and weight advantages

How is it that the Raging Bull ended up in so many fights against opponents where he held a significant weight advantage?

Looking at his record, I see a ton of fights (and not just the Robinson epics) where he came in at the high end of the middleweight spectrum, or even above it, and his opponent was on the low end, in the lower 150s or even 140s.

I never see this discussed in relation to LaMotta's resume, nor seen an explanation for how this happened so often. Quite frankly, if a middleweight today feasted on so many true welters and junior middles he would be criticized and called a fraud for it and people would demand that he pick on someone his own size rather than padding his record against smaller opponents.

In short, it looks like he was being protected.

And while LaMotta's chin is legendary, in perfect fact he was more often than not taking punches from smaller men. If he regularly fought full-blown middleweights, it's possible that iron jaw would have been cracked. I wouldn't applaud Marvin Hagler's chin if most of his opponents were 150-pounders, nor, I suspect, would most of the knowing coves of the ESB Classic community.

Does anyone know if all those fights when he came in at 164 or 162 1/2 against someone else who was under 160 were contracted at middleweight? It's common for non-title fights, especially in those days, to be at the weight limit plus-1 (i.e. 161 for a middleweight) and it's amazing so many of his opponents managed to make weight when he didn't.

There was no shortage of true middleweights in his day, and if he couldn't make middle he certainly didn't seek out a lot of true quality light heavyweights to balance it out -- where he would be giving up the weight advantage.

I think this is a serious knock against him when considering his place in the all-time middleweight ranks. I'd love to know more, because as I look at others in his era I just don't see anyone doing this with such regularity. It can't have been an accident.

 

I don't doubt he was a brute, in life and in the ring.

A legit tough-guy who is no delicate flower can still be protected record-wise by being put in with smaller men.

You knew him, you were around: why were so many of his fights basically against welters? Why did he often show up around 165 to fight guys who were coming in at 158 or 156? We're not talking about one fight or three or five -- it's basically most of the fights in his prime.

Why?

 

What does it mean for his legacy?

How would you feel about Hagler if so many of his fights were against the likes of a 151-pound Pipino Cuevas, a 149-pound Randy Shields, 155-pound Rocky Mattioli and Gianfranco Rossi, etc. -- and in many of those fights Marvin had come in at 162 to 166 pounds? And what if Leonard had come in at 145 and beaten him, or Hearns at 148?

I think people would look at Hagler a lot differently. But with Jake it's just "pay no attention to that, he was really tough."

 

On a completely different note, he beat a one-armed man for the title and lost his next fight.

And I get that he was a super middleweight, but that only more begs the question of why he feasted so often on welters.