![]() ![]() ![]() LaMotta wanted to make it at least look good, so threw some punches at Fox who had all the boxing ability of a wet noodle. It seemed easy enough, but during the first round, Jake LaMotta realized that he might have a problem on his hands with his opponent, Billy Fox. Face their boy Billy Fox, take a tumble in the fourth, and they’d give him a crack at The Champ, which was Marcel Cerdan by the time The Mob came through on their part of the deal some two years later and at a cost of an extra $20,000 out of LaMotta’s own pocket. The Mob approached LaMotta with a simple arrangement. At least, not without him giving them something in return. ![]() The Mob didn’t want Jake LaMotta taking a title they had successfully controlled for decades. He was passed over time and again for boxers who were nowhere near on his level, but who were Mob owned. Jake LaMotta had been-as he said himself-The Uncrowned Middleweight World Champion for the past five years, but no matter what he did, or who he beat, he couldn’t get a shot at the title. So, what happened? Why did Jake LaMotta have a sudden change of heart? Well, as in keeping with most of the life and times of The Bronx Bull, not everything was as clear-cut as it seemed. Yet, on the 14th of November, 1947, Jake LaMotta stepped into the ring with Billy Fox, and what happened over the next four rounds has gone down in infamy as the night the fix was in, as Jake LaMotta got “knocked out” by Billy Fox. In fact, Jake LaMotta had already told his brother Joey-who had approached him at the start of his professional career, telling him that he should meet these guys who could help him out, nudge nudge, wink wink-that he wanted nothing to do with The Mob on any level. He hated the fact that to get anywhere in the sport you had to deal with them on their terms. ![]()
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