LaMotta drove Robinson through the ropes in the 8th, the bell saving the 40-0 contender, possibly from a knockout. For Robinson, it was some achievement on his part in hearing it. It started in the eighth round, and LaMotta’s charge did not stop until the final bell rang. Jake, stung by the first fight and the boxing lesson he’d been given for no extra charge, came on as strong as, well, a bull. Ahead after seven, Robinson then saw his lead taken from him, beaten out of him, by a seemingly possessed LaMotta. Once again, though, Sugar’s sweetness proved too much for the rugged and relentless LaMotta. LaMotta – who had to wait until 1949 to get a shot at the 160-pound championship – out-weighed the man who would become his most famous, his most challenging, his most intense ring rival, by a little over 15 pounds. And in the return fight, the bigger, physically stronger man-made Robinson pay for having moved into his weight class. But Robinson – who had to wait until 1946 to get a shot at the 147-pound crown – fought LaMotta again, this time in February of 1943. Today, no world title bound welterweight who was approaching his prime would have taken such a risk, let alone twice. “Sugar Ray,” out-weighed by a considerable margin, nevertheless used his swift hands and his sheer boxing excellence to score a near shut-out over “The Bronx Bull.” Robinson, recognized by plenty as the best welterweight in the world, fought the frighteningly tough LaMotta, for many the hardest middleweight fighter in the world, in 1942. But when legends Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson were plying their trade, back in the early to mid-1940s, the boxing world was different. In modern times, it’s incredibly rare, almost unheard of, for a non-title match-up between two esteemed and established fighters, each of them seen by many as the best in their weight division, to take place. Imagine it: two of the absolute best fighters in the world fighting each other, in a rematch, with not so much as a sniff of a world title on the line in either fight.
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