A rematch with Cerdan was scheduled, but Cerdan was killed in a plane crash before the bout could take place. LaMotta officially became the middleweight champion of the world on June 16, 1949, in Detroit. Senate subcommittee in 1960 that he accepted $20,000 from the Mafia to lose the fight, who in turn rigged his title bout against World Middleweight Champion Marcel Cerdan. After arguing that he was ailing from a ruptured spleen and paying a $1,000 fine, he was reinstated. In 1947, LaMotta was briefly suspended from boxing by the New York State Athletic Commission, who suspected him of purposely throwing a fight against Billy Fox. LaMotta won the second match, handing Robinson the first defeat of his career, but Robinson won the other four. Between October of 1942 and September of 1945, the two fought each other five times, with each match highly publicized. However, LaMotta really began to attain recognition over his feud with Sugar Ray Robinson. Reeves decisively won a rematch a month later, but LaMotta cruised to victory during the third match, in Detroit, MI, on March 19, 1943. During his first fifteen bouts as a middleweight, LaMotta went 14-0-1 (3 KOs), before he lost to Jimmy Reeves in a highly controversial Cleveland, OH bout that nearly lead to a riot. After he was rejected for military service in World War II due to a mastoid operation on one of his ears, 19-year-old LaMotta decided to turn pro, with his brother, Joey LaMotta, acting as his manager. Growing up, LaMotta's father would help pay the rent by forcing Jake to fight other kids from the neighborhood, then inviting neighbors to watch, who would throw money into the ring. That life began on July 10, 1922, when LaMotta was born to an Italian immigrant father and an American mother in the Bronx, New York City.

But for all of the triumphs, LaMotta's life was also filled with tragedy: jail time, seven failed marriages, financial ruin, and death haunted him for much of his life. Giacobbe 'Jake' LaMotta was a professional boxer, best known for winning the World Middleweight Championships in 19, carrying on a nearly decade-long feud with Sugar Ray Robinson, and being the subject of Martin Scorsese's classic film 'Raging Bull' (1980), in which he was played by Robert DeNiro.

Jake lamotta