On June 16, 1949, in Detroit, he became middleweight champion when the Frenchman Marcel Cerdan couldn't continue after the 10th round. He didn't get a title shot until 10 fights later. LaMotta was "stopped" by Fox in the fourth round on Nov. "I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did," LaMotta said in 1970 interview printed in Peter Heller's 1973 book "In This Corner: 40 World Champions Tell Their Stories." Senate committee investigating organized crime in 1960. LaMotta threw a fight against Billy Fox, which he admitted in testimony before the Kefauver Committee, a U.S. Trailing badly on all three scorecards, LaMotta knocked out the challenger with 13 seconds left in the fight. In the fight before he lost the title, LaMotta saved the championship in movie-script fashion against Laurent Dauthuille. "I fought Sugar Ray Robinson so many times it's a wonder I don't have diabetes," LaMotta was fond of saying. LaMotta finished 1-5 in six fights against Robinson, who many in boxing think was the greatest fighter ever. LaMotta took a beating in the later rounds of the fight, but he refused to go down until the referee stepped in to save him from further punishment. It was a reference to the infamous 1929 mob killings of the same name. Robinson stopped a bloodied LaMotta in the 13th round of their scheduled 15-round bout in a fight that became known as the second St. "Rest in Peace, Champ," De Niro said in a statement.
De Niro won an Academy Award playing the troubled boxer - violent both inside and outside the ring - in a Martin Scorsese film that several critics have ranked as among the top 100 movies ever made. LaMotta gained fame with a new generation because of the 1980 film based loosely on his autobiography from a decade earlier. He was a fan favorite who fought with fury, though he admitted to once intentionally losing a fight to get in line for a title bout.
LaMotta handed Sugar Ray Robinson his first defeat and reigned for nearly two years as middleweight champion during a time boxing was one of America's biggest sports. The former middleweight champion died Tuesday at a Miami-area hospital from complications of pneumonia, according to his longtime fiancee, Denise Baker. Jake LaMotta, an iron-fisted battler who brawled his way to a middleweight title and was later memorialized by Robert De Niro in the film "Raging Bull," has died.
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