Why would he do that and what would he want in return? A chance at a middleweight title, something that had slipped his grasp for five years.

Now, most of you are probably thinking LaMotta must have been paid very well to throw the fight when in fact, he paid the mob $20,000. He told them everything about working with the mob to throwing the fight, including what he wanted in return. LaMotta was his star witness.Īt the hearing, LaMotta took the stand and told the truth about his involvement in fixing his 1947 fight against Fox. In 1960, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver chaired several hearings in an attempt to expose the mob’s power over professional boxing. It took 13 years for the truth to finally be told. The NYSAC questioned LaMotta for hours after the fight but he never gave them any information about the real reason he lost. Just one week after his loss to Fox, LaMotta was suspended by the NYSAC for concealing the fact he had a spleen condition and had been told not to box by his doctors. Jake LaMotta vs Billy Fox Newspaper Headline The New York State Athletic Commission noticed the same thing. Fans noticed that LaMotta didn’t act like himself during the match, saying he acted lazy and with no drive or effort to win. He just had no fight left in him and towards the end of the fourth round, the referee stopped the match.Īfter Fox’s relatively easy knockout win, suspicions were very high across the boxing world. For the rest of the round, Fox continued to pummel LaMotta without much resistance. At the start of the fourth round, he allowed Fox the opportunity to throw two lefts and a right with LaMotta hitting the ropes. He never looked like himself during the fight. If LaMotta was trying to throw the fight without making it obvious he was doing a lousy job. In fact, the odds got so high that day, that bookies stopped taking bets on Fox and three hours before the match you could only wager on LaMotta. The odds completely flipped and Fox became the favorite to win. In fact, he had won 19 of his last 22 bouts, 9 of those being knockouts.Ī few hours before the fight though something strange happened. He was riding a wave of wins having just defeated Fritzie Zivic and a few years earlier in 1943, he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson. The days leading up to the fight LaMotta was the sure favorite.

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