"Robinson showed that a style and fleetness of foot could win over power and muscle," Haygood says.īut Robinson's aspirations were to transcend boxing. The fight, which was dramatized in Martin Scorsese's film Raging Bull, lasted 13 rounds, with Robinson pulling out a hard-won victory. Many people sat in their living rooms and were aghast at the amount of blood dripping onto their silk trunks, at the amount of blood flying onto the referee." By the sixth round, you could hear the grunts from each fighter," Haygood says. "The fight was so physical, by the fourth round, both fighters were bleeding. The epic bout was the first between the pair to be nationally televised, and viewers at home got quite a shock. The fighters would meet three more times, with the last fight coming in 1951. Three weeks later, Robinson fought LaMotta again, and won. I cannot let Jake LaMotta walk this Earth thinking he's a better fighter than me." According to Haygood, he told his corner man, "I have to get him back. The moment, shockingly captured on film, shook Robinson up. Robinson had never been knocked down before, "let alone knocked out of the ring," says Haygood. "Jake LaMotta saw an opening - Sugar Ray's chin - and he threw every inch, every muscle, every pound of extra weight and power into Sugar Ray Robinson, and knocked him clean out of the ring." "Sugar Ray was coming up out of a crouch," Haygood says. In the eighth round, LaMotta got the better of Robinson. In 1943, an undefeated Robinson met LaMotta in the ring for the second time. "Everything Jake LaMotta represented, Sugar Ray Robinson found crude." "Everything that Sugar Ray Robinson represented, Jake LaMotta hated," Haygood says. LaMotta "fought to survive the mean streets of New York City." Robinson "wanted to look beautiful in between rounds," and had a valet to fix his hair if it flew out of place while in the ring. Haygood says the two fighters, who fought six times between 19, couldn't have been more different. Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson
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