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This Week in Boxing History: Jake LaMotta Stinks Up Madison Square Garden

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75 years ago this week, on Friday, Nov. 14, 1947, a near-capacity crowd of 18,340 crammed into Madison Square Garden for the weekly boxing show. The main event pitted Jake LaMotta against Billy Fox.

This was a compelling match-up: “LaMotta, the rugged individual from the Bronx who has never been knocked off his feet, and Fox, the flashy Negro from Philadelphia who has starched 49 out of 50 opponents in his meteoric career,” wrote the correspondent for the Associated Press who told his readers the 10-round contest would be “violent and spectacular.”

The oddsmakers could not pick a winner and opened the fight “6/5 pick-‘em.”

The case for Billy Fox, nicknamed Blackjack Billy, rested on two factors: (1) his won-loss record as it appeared in the press; and (2) the fact that he was the bigger man. LaMotta, who tipped the scale at 167 at the weigh-in, would be giving up seven pounds.

The case for Jake LaMotta rested largely on his greater experience. Five years older than Fox at age 27, the Bronx Bull was a 78-fight veteran who had tangled with a lot of rough customers including the incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson who he had defeated in their second of what would be six meetings. LaMotta’s record was then scarred by 11 losses, but among his prominent white contemporaries only Joey Maxim had been thrust against as many thorny black opponents.

Jake won the opening round handily, “battering Fox about the ribs and mid-section with powerful left hooks and vicious right digs at close quarters,” wrote James P. Dawson, the ringside scribe for the New York Times. But LaMotta slowed down in the second round, grimacing as he returned to his corner with his arms at his side.

Jake started fast in round three, but quickly assumed a defensive posture. In round four, Fox assumed command. Backing LaMotta into a neutral corner, Blackjack Billy flailed away. His punches, wrote Dawson, were indiscriminate, without accurate direction, but with nothing coming back from LaMotta the referee stepped between them and waived the fight off.

Several pre-fight stories in the tabloid press hinted that the fight wouldn’t be on the up-and-up. The tone of the fight was consistent with the scuttlebutt and with the betting (the late money was all on Fox) and the New York State Athletic Commission held up the purses of LaMotta and Fox pending an investigation.

The commission found no evidence that LaMotta had taken a dive but fined him $1,000 and suspended him for seven months for failing to disclose an injury. He had hurt his spleen in sparring and acknowledged that he had taken the fight against the advice of his physician.

Flash forward 13 years to June 14, 1960. Appearing in Washington D.C. before a U.S. Senate subcommittee charged with investigating alleged mob influence in boxing, Jake LaMotta testified under oath that he consented to a $100,000 bribe plus a promise that he would be given a crack at the middleweight title in return for losing to Billy Fox. LaMotta said the bribe came from Fox’s manager, Philadelphia numbers baron Frank “Blinky” Palermo and Palermo’s associate “Honest” Bill Daly, and was funneled through his brother Joey LaMotta, his de facto manager. (Joey was also interrogated but answered every question by invoking the fifth amendment.)

LaMotta’s confession, wrote Atlanta Constitution sports editor Jesse Outler, confirmed what the wiseguys had known for years. And in the pages of history, Jake’s 1960 about-face would be accepted as the final word on the subject, the gospel truth.

Case closed? Not so fast.

Almost all fixed fights attract what bookmakers call unnatural money and plenty of it showed on Nov. 14, 1947. Billy Fox was steamed up to a 3/1 favorite before the bookies took the fight off the board. At Madison Square Garden, the bet-takers working surreptitiously in the lobby reportedly closed up shop before the first preliminary bout which was highly unusual. However, Jake LaMotta was damaged goods and if this information was passed along the grapevine, that could well explain the one-sided action.

Jake LaMotta did get a crack at the world middleweight title. On June 16, 1949, he wrested the title from Marcel Cerdan, stopping the Frenchman in the ninth round. It seems odd, however, that the alleged evil-doers waited so long to give LaMotta the opportunity that they had allegedly promised him. LaMotta had nine fights between his bouts with Fox and Cerdan, winning eight, and the powers-that-be could scarcely deny him the opportunity to fight for the title after he TKOed rugged Joey DeJohn (58-3-2 heading in) on DeJohn’s turf in Syracuse.

The Jake LaMotta that emerges in Martin Scorsese’s dark 1980 LaMotta biopic “Raging Bull” is a sociopath, by definition someone for whom truth and fiction get all twisted. Ergo, nothing that came out of Jake’s mouth, not even a confession made under oath, should be automatically accepted as gospel. (One is reminded of Mark Kriegel’s wry observation, “Boxers lie even when they are telling the truth.”)

Postscript 1: The Senate subcommittee that quizzed Jake LaMotta chose not to subpoena Billy Fox upon leaning that Fox was then a ward in a Long Island mental hospital. In retirement, Blackjack Billy worked as a bowling alley pinsetter, returning to a job that he had worked at as young teenager in Richmond, Virginia.

About that 49-1 record: It was inflated by six phantom fights, first-round knockouts that never happened. Fox was 5-8-1 after fighting LaMotta and was stopped five times.

Postscript 2: In “Raging Bull,” Billy Fox was portrayed by Eddie Mustafa Muhammad who would acquire the WBA world light heavyweight title before the movie was released. Mustafa Muhammad hadn’t yet formally adopted his Muslim name and was credited under his birth name, Ed Gregory.

Arne K. Lang’s latest book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” has rolled off the press. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher (https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/c…-little-giants) or via Amazon.

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

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In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France,  Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed,  it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Steven Navarro is the TSS 2024 Prospect of the Year

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“I get ‘Bam’ vibes when I watch this kid,” said ESPN ringside commentator Tim Bradley during the opening round of Steven Navarro’s most recent match. Bradley was referencing WBC super flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, a precociously brilliant technician whose name now appears on most pound-for-pound lists.

There are some common threads between Steven Navarro, the latest fighter to adopt the nickname “Kid Dynamite,” and Bam Rodriguez. Both are southpaws currently competing in the junior bantamweight division. But, of course, Bradley was alluding to something more when he made the comparison. And Navarro’s showing bore witness that Bradley was on to something.

It was the fifth pro fight for Navarro who was matched against a Puerto Rican with a 7-1 ledger. He ended the contest in the second frame, scoring three knockdowns, each the result of a different combination of punches, forcing the referee to stop it. It was the fourth win inside the distance for the 20-year-old phenom.

Isaias Estevan “Steven” Navarro turned pro after coming up short in last December’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Lafayette, Louisiana. The #1 seed in the 57 kg (featherweight) division, he was upset in the finals, losing a controversial split decision. Heading in, Navarro had won 13 national tournaments beginning at age 12.

A graduate of LA’s historic Fairfax High School, Steven made his pro debut this past April on a Matchroom Promotions card at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas and then inked a long-term deal with Top Rank. He comes from a boxing family. His father Refugio had 10 pro fights and three of Refugio’s cousins were boxers, most notably Jose Navarro who represented the USA at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was a four-time world title challenger as a super flyweight. Jose was managed by Oscar De La Hoya for much of his pro career.

Nowadays, the line between a prospect and a rising contender has been blurred. Three years ago, in an effort to make matters less muddled, we operationally defined a prospect thusly: “A boxer with no more than a dozen fights, none yet of the 10-round variety.” To our way of thinking, a prospect by nature is still in the preliminary-bout phase of his career.

We may loosen these parameters in the future. For one thing, it eliminates a lot of talented female boxers who, like their Japanese male counterparts in the smallest weight classes, are often pushed into title fights when, from a historical perspective, they are just getting started.

But for the time being, we will adhere to our operational definition. And within the window that we have created, Steven Navarro stood out. In his first year as a pro, “Kid Dynamite” left us yearning to see more of him.

Honorable mention: Australian heavyweight Teremoana Junior (5-0, 5 KOs)

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