Is there any film of this real fight? How "fake" or "legit" did the fight appear to be, according to the newspapers?
Lamotta took a dive in this fight. Don't believe any other story. Fox was a mob controlled fighter. He couldn't carry Lamotta's jock stap. Lamotta took a dive in this fight so he could get a shot at the title. This win by Fox allowed him to get another title shot with Lesnevich/
Eddie M. Muhammad also had a cameo in the Leon Isaac Kennedy flick called "Body and Soul" from 1981........ Peter Lawford and Ali were also in small roles......... Yes, I know, the film was hokey / cheesy, but I liked it back in high school........ TRUTH! MR.BILL
Billy Fox actually said that he was never the same after fighting LaMotta because he couldn't believe how well LaMotta could take his punches without going down. All the rumours surrounding the fight made him think his other fights must have been fixed too. In his next fight he was KO'd in one by Gus Lesnevich.
Thomas Myler's 'The Sweet Science Goes Sour', with the words written attributed to Billy Fox; "When I put it to (Palermo) that I was sure the fight was crooked, he said he would swear on his wife and children that everything was on the level, but when I got home to Philadelphia, the scandal was all over the papers. I felt hurt. It affected my whole life. Made me feel despondant, downhearted, disgusted. Why did he have to do it to me? Why couldn't he have done it with a guy who didn't give a damn? Then I read in the papers that most of my fights were fixed. I discovered that Palermo made up my supposed record of 49 knockouts and doubled up with some of the names. When I put it to him, he said, 'Look, you do the fighting, I'll do the managing.' That was his line."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1071514/index.htm Billy Fox: 'just Riding Into Evening' by Gilbert Rogin.