why did jake lamotta fight SRR

Money, lots of it

 

money and pride

 

2 guys that really enjoyed fighting eachother and alot of cash:deal

 

People didn't make the kind of money per fight then that they make now, even factoring in inflation. So they had to fight more often to make money. If you were lucky enough to have a clear rival with whom you could keep making decent paydays (for the time), you'd fight that person as much as possible.

 

it was only 6 times ,

some of the early fights were very close , disputed decisions epic clashes of styles and big box office favourites with the fans - and also they had both more or less cleaned out everyone else of note , Jake lost some of his best years being prevented from getting a title shot as he wasnt on the inside with jim norris and the IBC so the SRR fights were the biggest paydays around for him.

back then it was commonplace for top guys like fritzie zivic, charlie burley , red cochrane, basora, reeves - to all face each other multiple times and lamotta and Robinson along with graziano and zale were the elite of the era.

 

Manny / Marquez

 

As far as I know, they fought 6 times with SRR winning 5 of the 6 bouts. It was not unusual for guys of that era to fight each other multiple times. Boxing back then was not like it is today. There were cards just about every night of the week in major markets. As far as money being paid to the fighters, hell, they had to fight more to earn a decent living. If I'm a fighter back then, I'd want to fight as many name opponents to increase my take. By all accounts, they fought some wars between them so the crowd loved the fights they had. So, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the gate, the bigger the purse.

Jake also fought a guy named Lorenzo Strickland 5 times and Fritzie Zivic 4 times in his career.

 

They fought six times, la motta winning one and SRR winning 5. 2 of the SRR wins were very close with many at the time believing La motta should have won. The last one was a massacre though.

 

Think it was the second he won not the first

 

Jake lost the first fight by UD, won the second by UD, lost the next 2 by UD, lost the 5th by SD, and lost the last fight by TKO.

Like you mentioned, they did have some very close fights and lots of folks think Jake should have won more than he did.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOo3OjzR8E4[/ame]

Jake explains it in this video. To sum up, he wanted paying and Ray Robinson was the opponent he could make the most money with.

 

I've read both Jake's book, Raging Bull, and Vikki's book, Knockout.

Vikki details how Jake had to lose about 19 pounds with less than 2 weeks to go or such, in the St Valentine's day massacre (their last fight). Despite what he had to do to himself to make the fight, he actually did relatively well during the first half, until he hit the wall.

ANd Jake relates that after that fight he had to go on oxygen as he could not leave the arena until treated.

 

Big deal, I know plenty who have cut that in 24hours and not been drained

 

Different times though, wasn't it?