Jake LaMotta on the past vs. today...

jimglen · Post by **jimglen** » 18 Oct 2006, 13:29

From the Sweet Science...

“Among today’s champions, I like nobody. Talking in general, I don’t like what boxing has become: they give world title shots to people with 20 fights of experience, the referee stops the fight after a cut over the eye, too many so-called champions find excuses to refuse fights. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, nobody even considered refusing a fight. We all needed to make money and were willing to fight even on short notice. Besides, nobody ever told us that fighting too often was risky and we didn’t think about that. The first time I faced Fritzie Zivic, he had more than 100 fights. Can you name anybody, among today’s boxers, who fought as much? I defeated Zivic three times and lost one.” (Note: Fritzie’s record was 128 wins, 35 losses and 7 draws before fighting La Motta for the first time. Zivic started as a welterweight and became word champion defeating the legendary Henry Armstrong. Zivic retired after 232 fights: 157 wins, 66 losses and 9 draws).

When I asked him about the heavyweights, LaMotta’s answer didn’t change:

“I like the old ones. The best were Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali. I cannot choose one of them. All the other heavyweight champions, are way below them.”

Maybe that’s just a coincidence, but Angelo Dundee gave me the same answer. Like Angelo, the Raging Bull has Italian blood (his real name is Giacobbe). Unlike Angelo, who came to Italy so many times that he lost count, La Motta’s first trip to Italy happened last year. Instead of travelling the well-trod tourist’s itinerary – Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples – he chose to visit Sicily because that’s where his father came from: “My father was from Messina, while my mother was born in the United States from Napolitano parents. My dad talked about Sicily his whole life. I don’t understand why I waited so long to go there. I really liked my time on that island.” Believe it or not, nobody knew about LaMotta’s trip. A Sicilian journalist recognized him while LaMotta was drinking a cup of coffee in a sidewalk café in the small town of Bagheria (close to Palermo), asked him a couple of questions and shot a photo of him which was published by a national newspaper. Before any other journalist could try to contact the Raging Bull, he was back on a plane heading home to New York.

When I asked Mr. LaMotta about the best boxer he fought, he had no doubts: “It was Ray Robinson. He was, by far, the greatest of them all. In my time, there were so many outstanding boxers who never won the world title. One of them was Tony Janiro. Everybody was scared to fight him, but I accepted immediately. I wanted to be recognized as the best and... I needed the money. In the other divisions, I liked world featherweight champion Willie Pep a lot. He would have crushed everybody today”

the facts are simple, the more you fight and against TOP men proves who the real champion and/or contender are!

HomicideHenry · Post by **HomicideHenry** » 18 Oct 2006, 15:57

When was this article done? I read a similar interview that RING magazine done a few years back, and LaMotta said that he considered only Joe Louis and Marciano as the two best HW's ever, because if Ali had problems with Joe Frazier who wasn't as good as Rocky [these are LaMotta's words] then Ali couldn't have been top three.

I do recall he said that a large problem in boxing was inflation of purses, making fighters get rich and then get lazy and have to retrain all over again, when in LaMotta's day whether you lost or not you was still in fighting shape and they fought as soon as they could.

Ambling Alp · Post by **Ambling Alp** » 18 Oct 2006, 23:22

It's sort of amusing that he early in the interview he says that "Back in the 1940's and 1950's nobody even considered refusing a fight".
Then later he says that everyone was scared to fight Tony Janiro. :)

HomicideHenry · Post by **HomicideHenry** » 19 Oct 2006, 00:18

The same Tony Janiro that Jake knocked the guys nose from one side to another [at least the the movie RAGING BULL portrays] ?

Eric the Viking · Post by **Eric the Viking** » 19 Oct 2006, 12:22

Ambling Alp wrote:It's sort of amusing that he early in the interview he says that "Back in the 1940's and 1950's nobody even considered refusing a fight".
Then later he says that everyone was scared to fight Tony Janiro. :)

When I saw that bit, I immediately thought of Charley Burley...

muray · Post by **muray** » 20 Oct 2006, 19:23

why not ask Jake the real reason for not fighting Rocky Graziano