This Month in Boxing History: LaMotta Stops Dauthuille in a Comeback for the Ages

Seventy-five years ago this month, on Sept. 13, 1950, Jake LaMotta successfully defended his world middleweight title with a 15^th-round stoppage of Laurent Dauthuille at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.

The bout would be named The Ring magazine Fight of the Year, but this was no first-bell-to-last barnburner. To the contrary, both combatants were warned by the referee at times to pick up the pace and the action occasionally slowed to a crawl, drawing boos from the 11,000-plus in attendance. But those that stuck around for the finish were rewarded with a spine-tingling final round as Jake LaMotta rallied to beat the clock and keep his belt.

The scoring system then in use in Michigan (and many other places) compelled the judges to divvy up 10 points after each round (6-4, 5-5, etc.). Heading into the final stanza, Laurent Dauthuille was up by 8, 4, and 2 points on the cards. All he needed to do was stay out of harm’s way and the title would be his. But he fell for the ploy when LaMotta, his left eye nearly swollen shut, feigned grogginess, and Jake knocked him through the ropes and on to the ring apron with a fusillade of punches climaxed by a left cross to the head.

He groggily got to his feet, but not before the referee reached “10.” The official time was 2:47 of Round 15. Only 13 seconds separated Dauthuille from world championship glory.

Laurent Dauthuille

Dauthuille won 20 of his first 21 pro fights but his career didn’t blossom until he moved to Montreal where he acquired his sobriquet The Tarzan of Buzenval, the reference to a neighborhood in Paris that was the site of a famous battle during the Franco-Prussian War. In his third Montreal fight he upset LaMotta, winning a unanimous decision in a non-title fight and then, three fights later, met Kid Gavilan at the Montreal Forum in a non-title fight that generated a rich gate, a promotion helped along by a cover story about the Frenchman in the November 1949 issue of The Ring magazine.

Dauthuille was out-pointed by Gavilan, but rebounded with four knockouts including back-to-back KOs of Tuzo Portuguez. (In the first meeting, Portuguez also exchanged punches with the referee who allowed the match to continue rather than disqualify the Costa Rican journeyman.)

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Although Dauthuille had gotten the nod in their first encounter, LaMotta was an 11/5 favorite for the sequel. This owed partly to the locale. Detroit had become a second home to the Bronx Bull. Preceding Dauthuille, he was 15-1-1 in Detroit rings. It was here in the Motor City that he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson in their second encounter and it was here where he won the title, stopping Marcel Cerdan in the ninth round.

According to research by Hall of Fame boxing journalist Steve Farhood, LaMotta’s triumph over Dauthuille was historic, marking the first time in the history of Queensberry boxing that a world title fight ended in a stoppage in the final round by a boxer, champion or challenger, who was trailing on the scorecards. Moreover, it wouldn’t happen again until 1974 when Oscar “Shotgun” Albarado wrested the lineal 154-pound title from Koichi Wajima in Tokyo. (We’re now up to about 16 or 17 instances. Certain scenarios, including this one, became more likely when world title fights were reduced to 12 rounds.)

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Dauthuille was 10-4-1 after LaMotta, defeating the likes of Tony Janiro, Paddy Young, Bobby Dawson, and Eugene “Silent” Hairston in the first of their two meetings before returning to France where he transitioned into a wrestler. He finished 45-13-4 and was reportedly destitute when he passed away in a hospital in the Paris suburb of Reuil in 1971 at the age of 47.

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Jake LaMotta entered the ring against Laurent Dauthuille knowing that his next fight, assuming he prevailed, would be a title defense against Sugar Ray Robinson. They met on Feb. 14, 1951, at Chicago Stadium in what would be their sixth and final meeting and things didn’t go well for Jake who absorbed so much punishment before the match was stopped in the 13^th round that the fight would be dubbed the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

A man with an iron constitution, LaMotta lived to be 95. Late in his life he became something of a folk hero, a residue of all the attention that came his way following the release of Martin Scorcese’s 1980 masterpiece “Raging Bull,” adapted from LaMotta’s memoir with Roberto DiNiro in the title role and welterweight contender Johnny Turner in a small role portraying Laurent Dauthuille.

LaMotta capitalized on his new fame by becoming a stand-up comedian. If Dauthuille were still around, it’s for sure that he wouldn’t have laughed at any of Jake’s jokes. They shared the ring for 25 rounds, the last of which was seared into his memory, a memory so painful that it would never go away.

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