Jake LaMotta vs Marcel Cerdan 16.6.1949 (Highlights) - NBA World Middleweight Championship

Описание: The 1949 World Middleweight title fight between Champion Marcel Cerdan and "The Bronx Bull" Jake LaMotta. Both men would suffer injuries hindering their performance during this brutal fight. More info below...

Little introduction needs to be made for Jake LaMotta. LaMotta started his career back in 1941 as a light-heavyweight before quickly trimming down and finding fame as a middleweight. He famously earned this title shot against Cerdan by supposedly throwing a fight against Billy Fox two years prior. Among his list of achievements to date was beating a prime Sugar Ray Robinson back in 1943, the first man to do so. He had the uncanny ability to absorb a tremendous amount of punishment and was known to use this to his advantage by playing possum, acting hurt of tired, before pouncing and unleashing a barrage of devastating blows. In his most recent fight, LaMotta TKO'd former WWII naval boxer Joey DeJohn (60-3-2) in 8 rounds. LaMotta's record at the time was 72-13-3.

Marcel Cerdan is a relatively forgotten fighter in the history of boxing which is a shame, because he was actually a very talented welterweight and middleweight competitor from France with an incredible 111 wins and only 3 losses, 2 of which were by DQ. Cerdan started his illustrious career back in 1934 as a welterweight. In 1938 he won the France Welterweight title, successfully defending it twice before winning the European Welterweight title in 1939. His last defense of the European Welterweight title occurred in 1942 when he TKO'd Spain's Welterweight Champion Jose Ferrer (26-1-4) in the 1st round. He later vacated the Welterweight title and won the France Middleweight title in 1945. He successfully defended the France Middleweight title twice before moving on to capture the vacant European Middleweight title in 1947. In 1948 he suffered his first legitimate loss when Cyrille Delannoit (47-7-3) beat him over 15 rounds to claim the European Middleweight title (although Cerdan was suffering from lumbago...). Just 2 months later however and Cerdan would win back the European Middleweight title in a rematch. 2 months after that, Cerdan would cause an upset in the boxing world by beating the tough and talented Tony Zale (67-17-2) for the NBA World Middleweight title when Zale's corner threw in the towel after 11 rounds. Cerdan's first defense of the belt, would be against Jake LaMotta.

Although the footage above doesn't clearly show it, both fighters were injured at various points during the bout vastly affecting their performance. Cerdan was thrown to the floor in round 1 injuring his left shoulder while LaMotta injured his left hand in the third or fourth. Cerdan can be seen only throwing right hands for a majority of the footage, while LaMotta didn't appear too concerned about his injury it was affecting how hard he could throw his lefts. Cerdan's corner threw in the towel after 9 rounds and the World Middleweight title awarded to Jake LaMotta.

A rematch was scheduled between the 2 boxers however in October 1949, Cerdan died in a plane crash on his way back to the USA. His final record was an impressive 111-4. An argument could be made that NOBODY actually beat Cerdan legitimately when he was at 100% full health...

LaMotta would instead go on to have his first Middleweight World title defense against Tiberio Mitri (48-1-3), winning over 15 rounds by unanimous decision. In 1951 Jake LaMotta would meet Sugar Ray Robinson for the 6th and final time, losing his World Middleweight title by TKO in one of the most bloodiest fights ever on record, the now famous "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". LaMotta would retire from the sport in 1954 with a 83-19-4 record.