Just watched this movie a few nights ago. I've seen it a few times before. I personally like it but I have a few questions - How historically accurate is it? Did LaMotta really refuse to deal with the mob and was that why he had to wait so long for a title shot? What was the story of Billy Fox, was he a good boxer, and did LaMotta really throw his fight with him, btw Fox was played by then WBA light heavy champ Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Is Lamotta an ATG middleweight, he did beat SRR but only once out of six times they fought. Comments please?
The main difference is that his brother Joey in the movie was a composite of this brother and is best friend. It was the friend who was probably fooling around with Vicki. Don't know how long he held out against the mob. He beat Robinson one of six, but I think most historians have it 2-4, and he was the first to beat Robinson in 75 fights. That and Cerdan alone would make him and ATG.
That's his own explanation for why he took a dive. Nobody knows for sure what really transpired behind the scenes, but there were other reasons why he (& others) would've had to wait for a title shot - 1st the war years froze the title, then Zale & Graziano became entangled in their trilogy. He was managed by mobster Blinky Palermo, who eventually went to jail for his role in corrupting the sport. Fox had a heavily padded record w/ a lot of suspicious fights on it. According to Fox himself in this interview for Sports Illustrated, Palermo would match him multiple times vs. the same opponent(s) but w/ a different alias for his opponent each time, & some results on his record are outright fabricated. The LaMotta fight was considered highly dubious even @ the time & spurred an investigation by the NYSAC. LaMotta initially denied a fix & blamed his poor performance on an internal injury that he had concealed, which resulted in a fine & suspension for concealing an injury. years after he had retired, he testified before a Senate committee investigating corruption in boxing that he had taken a dive.
In the book Salvy is actually his best friend and it's also Salvy he beats up over him thinking he's fooling with his wife and not his brother. LaMotta also admitted the book was largely fictional.
