De Niro won an Academy Award playing the troubled boxer - violent both inside and outside the ring - in a Martin Scorsese film that several critics have ranked as among the top 100 movies ever made. LaMotta gained fame with a new generation because of the 1980 film based loosely on his autobiography from a decade earlier. He was a fan favourite who fought with fury, though he admitted to once intentionally losing a fight to get in line for a title bout. “When he took a dive during the Billy Fox fight, which he didn’t want to do, it literally broke him & was never the same afterwards,” she added.LaMotta handed Sugar Ray Robinson his first defeat and reigned for nearly two years as middleweight champion during a time boxing was one of America’s biggest sports. “I’m proud that my Father was a great athlete, he lost his title to one of the best Middleweight Boxers in history, Sugar Ray Robinson,” his daughter wrote on Facebook. LaMotta’s turmoil-filled life - marked by a fixed match he deliberately lost under Mafia pressure in 1947 - was depicted in the 1980 movie “Raging Bull, in which he was portrayed in an Academy Award-winning performance by Robert De Niro. After two successful defences, he lost the belt in 1952 in his sixth bout against Sugar Ray Robinson. On June 16, 1949, he scored a knockout win over French boxer Marcel Cerdan to capture the middleweight title. In a career spanning 1941 to 1954, LaMotta racked up a record of 83 victories, 30 of them knockouts, against 19 defeats, according to BoxRec, which keeps boxing statistics. Sports Illustrated said he died from complications from pneumonia. LaMotta, known for a legendary six-fight rivalry with Sugar Ray Robinson, passed away on Tuesday, his daughter Christi LaMotta said on Facebook. Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight boxing champion who was portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film “Raging Bull,” has died at the age of 95, his family announced.
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