In a brutal world middleweight championship match 65 years ago, Jake LaMotta faced Sugar Ray Robinson’s bloodied Valentine. The fight between Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta stands out as the most enduring rivalry in boxing’s illustrious past. First of all, these two were legends. They were regarded as exceptional prospects with championship aspirations even in the early stages of their careers. Furthermore, LaMotta, the ferocious “Bronx Bull,” and Robinson, the stylish “Prince of Harlem,” were the ideal antitheses of one another in terms of personality and fighting techniques. Later, they engaged in six fights, with each one getting more and more significant as their rivalry and individual careers developed. However, their final fight, LaMotta vs. Robinson, Part Six, is the most well-known because it resulted in the fabled “St. Valentine’s Day Slaughter,” a massacre.
Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta
Jake LaMotta has always joked, “I fought Sugar Ray so often I almost got diabetes,” and the most agonising of those six battles took place at Chicago Stadium on St. Valentine’s Day in 1951. LaMotta is still alive today to recount what happened in one of the most illustrious battles in boxing history.
In their most well-known matchup, Robinson defeated LaMotta in a grueling 13th round to win the undefeated middleweight championship. LaMotta, who is now 94, has repeated his version of events numerous times.
Five times Sugar Ray Robinson has fought and won, but their fifth encounter left many with the feeling that their conditions had not been fully agreed upon. But as the years passed and Sugar Ray finally won the welterweight title in 1946 and LaMotta ultimately won the middleweight title in 1949, they split up. But by 1950, Robinson was unable to maintain 147 pounds and switched to middleweight. This brought up a sixth fight, this time with a world championship at stake.
Jake LaMotta claimed, “Sugar Ray would have collapsed from beating me if the referee had held up another 30 seconds.”
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Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta record
With 83 victories from 106 professional fights, including a two-year title reign as middleweight king, LaMotta’s record came to an end. Robinson has a record of 173 victories, 19 defeats, and 6 draws. He was a middleweight and welterweight world champion (five times).
A brawl occurred in 1929 that resulted in the deaths of Al Capone and Bugs Moran, hence the name St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Seven individuals were shot and murdered as a result, spilling blood all over a white wall in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.
After their sixth and final encounter, LaMotta announced his retirement three years later. Meanwhile, bigger fights awaited Robinson, and in 1965 he finally put down his fighting gloves.
Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta highlights
All of those, it is undeniable that there is no history of boxing that contains antagonism comparable to that displayed by middleweights “Sugar” Ray Robinson (Walker Smith, his name) and Jake LaMotta, “The Bronx Bull,” in the 1940s and 1950s.
The majority of yesterday’s reporters as well as supporters, trainers and co-workers who witnessed Robinson fight have regarded him as the best pound-for-pound fighter in history.
He passed away on April 12, 1989, at age 67. He was born on May 3, 1921, in Vidalia, Georgia. Between 1940 and 1965, with a gap between June 1952 and January 1955, he fought 199 times for 174 wins, 19 loses, and 6 draws, years he devoted to the positive environment of show business.
Between 1941 and 1955, Jake or Giacobbe LaMotta (10/6/1922 – 19/9/2017, 95 years old) fought 106 times for a record of 83-19-4, with 30 knockouts and 4 knockouts received.
Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta Fights
Eighty years ago, one of the most renowned and enduring boxing rivalries had its start in New York. Though neither boxing great was aware of it at the time, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta met in a ten-round non-title bout and each man found his most challenging opponent—the opponent and matches that would come to define both legacies. The first fight between Robinson and LaMotta was won by Sugar Ray after Jake knocked down LaMotta in the opening round. LaMotta was sent home with a significant point loss on his record when Robinson, incensed over being knocked down, boxed superbly following. Robinson made his Madison Square Garden debut that day. If these two hadn’t reconnected, it would have been boxing’s misfortune. Thankfully, the two legendary couples did reconnect five more times. And what a genuinely brutal series this one was.
Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta rivalry
The best boxing rivalry, according to younger fans, is Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier yet, decades before, Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson engaged in twice as many fights and with an unmatched level of intensity. They fought six times between October 1942 and February 1951, except for one live television match that featured violent boxing known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Robinson and LaMotta split up for more than five years after playing so many games against one another shortly. In December 1946, Robinson won his first championship by continuing to destroy his rivals. To earn his successful title match against Marcel Cerdan, LaMotta went on a 20-3-1 record.