Jake LaMotta...

[bradlee180]

...is still alive and reasonably well at 92 years old.

The Bronx Bull had his 1st pro bout about 73 years ago, March 1941, at 19 years old.

He was the man that ended the undefeated streak of the Greatest Pound-For-Pound Boxer in history, Sugar Ray Robinson.
Ray was undefeated in 85 amateur bouts and 40 pro bouts, but in the 1943 rematch with Jake, Jake beat him.

LaMotta led quite a colorful life, a jagged path.
Quite amazing that he's still alive at all.

This clip's from Aug 28, 2013:

[Silkeyjoe]

He was a character. I remember him talking bout the fight against ray where the ref stepped in and he was thanking him for stopping it cz he knew he wasn't gonna get knocked out and he wasn't gonna quit so if it wasn't for the ref he thinks he would have died that night

[Master]

Good to see him live long and amazingly showing no signs of the fights.

[Beanflicker]

It really is amazing he's still around, given the tremendous punishment he took in the ring and his crazy behaviour outside the ring. You don't see many boxers living to 90+.

He outlived everybody: his opponents, his friends, his wife, everyone.

He's pretty senile though. He was on Opie and Anthony a few months back and he was telling the same joke 4 or 5 times.

[bradlee180]

George Chuvalo, The-Hard-Rock-From-Canada, is 76 years of age, and released a book a few months ago, Oct, 2013. Has been out promoting it, "Chuvalo: A Fighter's Life."

[Beanflicker]

George is another freak of nature. There are a lot of guys who took less punishment than him that ended up with dementia in their 40s. Jerry Quarry was a walking vegetable when he finally died at 53. And here Chuvalo is, 76 years old, still carrying on a conversation like any other 76 year old would.

Guys like Chuvalo and Lamotta are just built to be fighters.

[Master]

I can see Roberto Duran live to a ripe old age.

[Beanflicker]

It'd be great if they could pinpoint or isolate whatever the fuck it is that lets guys like Lamotta and Chuvalo have long boxing careers where they take a ton of damage, and then live to a ripe old age with seemingly no consequence.

It's not just a matter of having a great chin: Jerry Quarry also had a great chin. I wonder what it is.

[Master]

It'd be great if they could pinpoint or isolate whatever the fuck it is that lets guys like Lamotta and Chuvalo have long boxing careers where they take a ton of damage, and then live to a ripe old age with seemingly no consequence.

It's not just a matter of having a great chin: Jerry Quarry also had a great chin. I wonder what it is.

Genetics.

[Beanflicker]

For sure, but what is it structurally? Thicker layer of cerebral spinal fluid around the brain? Thicker skull? Or maybe the brain just doesn't go crazy and overproduce tau protein when it's concussed? Who knows.

It'd be nice if they knew, then if someone is at a high risk of developing pugilistic dementia they could be notified.

[greynotsoold]

While LaMotta certainly did take some serious punches in his career, he was far from a punching bag. In fact, most of his opponents said he was pretty hard to hit clean. I forget who it was, but one of them said that he was only easy to hit with jabs, which, of course is a strategy. If he lands the jab, he'll commit to a right hand or a hook, then you make him miss and counter.
It is like Carmen Basilio said, if he'd really taken all the punches people thought hetook, he wouldn't have lived long enough to get punchy.

[IamInuit]

George Chuvalo, The-Hard-Rock-From-Canada, is 76 years of age, and released a book a few months ago, Oct, 2013. Has been out promoting it, "Chuvalo: A Fighter's Life."

I love George. I was bummed when they made his show a half hour.

[Britkid]

What is the saying?


Only the good die young!

[Beanflicker]

While LaMotta certainly did take some serious punches in his career, he was far from a punching bag.

For sure, he was a lot better defensively than people gave him credit for.

The most dangerous thing about Jake was the weight cutting. We know now that weight cutting is dangerous, but they didn't know that back then. And to make it worse, they were doing same day weigh ins, so Lamotta was cutting INSANE weight without going through a 24 hour hydration period, so he was taking a lot of these punches with a severely depleted layer of cerebral spinal fluid protecting his brain.

Wilfredo Benitez ended up with disabling dementia from getting hit, and he was one of the best defensive fighters ever and had half the fights Lamotta had. Something in the genes, some guys are just built to take it and some guys aren't.