Jake LaMotta and weight advantages

What the record doesnt show is that Jake had a very difficult time getting fights with his contemporary middleweights. He was being ducked by a lot of guys so he was forced to pick up fights with anyone who was willing to face him. He even had to start promoting his own shows just to stay active.

 

Wish those of you that question LaMotta's credentials, had seen him fight live. To his opponents -- who hit him with bunker busters -- it was like facing Michael Myers, sans hockey mask.

 

Fixed. [At 90, this guy is STILL smoking Marlboros!]

Yeah, he was so protected he had to take a dive against Fox to get a title shot!:nut

He came in at a contracted career low 155, and beat the crap outta Janiro. Given greater discipline, that suggests he could have kept a lid on his weight and remained extremely effective, not drained.

Regardless, when he lost the title, it's the fact he was weight drained that provided the whole key to how the Valentine's Day Massacre unfolded in his biggest fight. That's part of why we don't see this discussed. If size had previously been an advantage, it certainly came back to bite him.

This issue is not discussed with respect to Greb's MW resume either. He's recorded weighing as much at 176 to start 1919, a higher weight than Jake's late career 173 for Nardico. The fact is it was a different era, and we can't apply modern sensibilities to events which took place 60 years or more ago. [Maxim-Robinson was 61 years ago next month, by the way, Michael Spinks-Gerry Cooney just a quarter century back. Now John, don't let your eyes glaze over THAT much, but if it's any consolation, Jones-Ruiz is only ten years on.]

Without a ******* division in place to accommodate him, Jake entered the ranks of the weight class he fit within if in peak physical condition. Like Robinson, he was a big city amateur champion from a media capital, but as a light heavyweight. [Location, location, location. What was his nickname again, at a time when the most dominant team in baseball hailed from the same borough, already with ten World Series Titles?] Didn't have the size and power to compete at the top level of that division when the champion at 175 was automatically considered a potential challenger for Louis. Are we even talking about him here if he stays at 175 after turning pro?

 

It was common then, you've got to look at other fighters of the time. It was all about keeping busy, taking fights at short notice and paying the bills. On top of that fighters or promoters weren't as obsessed with keeping that 0. I think Lamotta was a true middleweight 160 but it was hard for him to make that weight and he only did it for title fights. When you are fighting that regular you just can't do it. I don't think a lot of people who haven't boxed realise how tough it is for most championship fighters doing the weight. All I can say is that my old fellas always said that doing the weight for him in title fights was the most traumatic experience of his life. In Raging Bull they do touch on it with the Janiro fight and in the Lionel Rose mini series "Rose Against the Odds". I watched both of them with me dad and he related to it.
I've got to say though that looking at Jake's record he did have the weight advantage in most of his fights.

 

this is Positively True.

hmmmn :think and for others too Lord Tywin!

 

dis is it.

they were different & better days with tougher & better men Full Stop!

our cream cake softer environment & attitudes would have to sharpen up quick or relegation would be the outcome!!!

 

He was a Light Heavy and trained on a water diet to make 160.