Raging Bull: The Life and Troubled Times of Jake LaMotta

Jake LaMotta’s life and career in boxing and self-destruction.

Born into a family of Italian immigrants, Jake LaMotta was raised in the Bronx, New York City in the 1920s amidst a life of crime, abuse and hardships. From his relentless pursuit of victory in the ring to his life entangled in criminality and self-destructive behaviour, his story unravelled his boxing career and personal life where he was battling not only his opponents but also his personal demons.

The Bruiser Set Loose

Growing up in a surrounding where he was bullied and abused by his peers, Jake LaMotta set out to be the most relentless and ferocious boxer of his time. His father forced him to fight his bullies which would often turn into back alley fisticuffs and gruesome assaults. After being involved in a string of robberies and muggings, LaMotta was sent to a reformatory school in upstate New York where he first learned boxing. Undefeated in 19 amateur boxing matches, he turned professional after his release in 1941. During the Second World War, LaMotta was rejected from enlisting due to an ear perforation that was caused during a childhood mastoid operation which affected his hearing. He thought he was lucky, however, his life and career took some of the wildest turns a boxer could ever take.

The Rise of Jake LaMotta

Jake LaMotta’s fighting style was first considered to be that of a chin, where he rolled with the punches and absorbed all blows by his opponents. He famously said, "No son-of-a-bitch ever knocked me off my feet", until his fight against Danny Nardico in 1952, where he went down over the ropes in the 7th round. Throughout his career, LaMotta was known to have adopted the bully style of fighting, where he stayed close to his opponent within punching range while taking the punches and stalking him around the ring, often bullying and exhausting them into a loss. It was due to this fighting style, that he earned the nickname “The Bronx Bull” (or Raging Bull) and went 14-0-1 (3 KOs) in his first 15 middleweight matches.

Fighting Greatness

In 1941, LaMotta took on Jimmy Reeves, where he lost his first professional boxing match, in Reeves's hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. LaMotta's six-fight rivalry, against Sugar Ray Robinson was one of the most notable in the sport. Although each fight was close, LaMotta dropped Robinson to the canvas multiple times. However, LaMotta won only one of the six bouts. Touted as one of boxing’s most memorable rivalries, LaMotta and Robinson went head to head on 14 February 1951, in the famous “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”, where LaMotta absorbed 56 of Sugar Ray’s most brutal and best punches but refused to go down, ultimately losing the fight.

Boxing Battles Riddled with Controversy

Other than fighting Sugar Ray Robinson, LaMotta was knocked out by Billy Fox in November 1947. LaMotta hated the fact that Sugar Ray Robinson had his crack at the belt but he had not. His brother, Joey had suggested he meet with the New York mafia to have his shot at the title. After losing the fight against Fox, LaMotta blamed his lacklustre performance due to an injured spleen and instead praised Fox’s fighting skills. LaMotta was then suspended for 7 months for hiding the injury. He later testified in a senate hearing with the FBI that he had reluctantly agreed to his brother's offer and that he had indeed thrown the fight against Billy Fox to gain favor with the mafia.

In another fight in 1949, which was discovered to be riddled with mafia involvement, LaMotta paid a $20,000 “matchmaker’s fee” to the mob for the World Middleweight Title against Frenchman Marcel Cerdan. On word of Frankie Carbo, the mob’s unofficial boxing promoter, LaMotta fought Cerdan and won. The official score had LaMotta as the winner by a knockout in 10 rounds because the bell had already rung although Cerdan couldn’t hear it go off. A rematch was arranged, however, Cerdan tragically died in the Air France 009 crash.

The Personal Struggles of the Raging Bull

Jake LaMotta lived a very turbulent life since childhood. Born to an abusive father and bullied by kids his own age, he was often left to fend for himself in the Bronx. LaMotta fought his bullies back with metal pipes and intentionally picked fights with other kids to entertain the neighbourhood adults on word of his father. At 24, he married Beverly Rosalin Thailer aka “Vikki”, who was only 16 at the time and was pregnant with his child. They divorced 11 years later when Vikki said that Jake was not only jealous of other men around her but was also physically abusive to her when his boxing career slowed down. She also claimed the reason for his self-destructive behavior was the strain of fighting Sugar Ray Robinson and the losses to him over the years.

Shortly after retiring from boxing in 1954, ‘The Bronx Bull’ struggled to find worthwhile endeavors in the sport as he was barred from managing any other boxer after it was disclosed that he was Jackie Labua’s undercover manager even though LaMotta did not have a license. He even dabbled in playing the trumpet and joining a band but failed to do so. He then moved to Miami and opened a bar which he managed and operated himself. As a side hustle, he also became a stage actor and a stand-up comedian at the local comedy clubs. In 1958, LaMotta was arrested and charged with introducing men to underage girls at a club he owned in Miami for which he served 6 months of hard labor. His boxing career is all that he had left as a legacy until Hollywood came calling.

Hollywood’s Call

In the mid-1970s, LaMotta was approached by Hollywood executives with an idea of a movie about his life, based on his memoir Raging Bull: My Story. The film would star Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta and would be directed by Martin Scorsese. Raging Bull was released in 1980 and was only a minor box office success but received massive critical applause which earned Robert De Niro an Academy Award for Best Actor. To accurately portray the life and career of LaMotta, De Niro trained and fought with LaMotta until LaMotta himself agreed he was ready to play the role and box professionally.

The Final Years and Legacy of the Raging Bull

After the success of Raging Bull, LaMotta moved back to Miami where he remained active on the speaking and autograph circuit and published several books and talks on his boxing career and his fights against Robinson. He lost his eldest son, Jake Jr., to liver cancer in 1998 and his youngest son, Joesph died in the Swiss Air Flight 111 disaster in September 1998. Jake LaMotta’s world was shattered as he relatively stayed out of the spotlight for a few years. By 2013, LaMotta had married a total of 7 times and this final time to his long-time fiancee, Denise Baker. LaMotta died on September 19, 2017, from complications of pneumonia in a nursing home in Florida, at the age of 95.

Jake Lamotta left behind a legacy of some of the most tumultuous and ferocious boxing stories the world had ever witnessed. A boxer fueled by rage, childhood trauma and crime had a chance to turn the page but instead chose a path of self-destruction and controversy that still drove him into the annals of boxing history.