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...The guy you're throwing to has to be at least moderately good. I mean, this fight is in Madison Square Garden, and all the fight writers are there and a big crowd, so this little scuffle has got to look like a fight. But the mob guys, like lots of others, are plain stupid. Fox can't even look good. The first round, a couple of belts to his head, and I see a glassy look coming over his eyes. Jesus Christ, a couple of jabs and he is going to fall down? I began to panic a little. I was supposed to be throwing a fight to this guy, and it looked like I was going to end up holding him on his feet.

I don't know how we even got through the first round without me murdering him, sometimes I thought the air from my punches was affecting him, but we made it to the fourth round. By then if there was anybody in the Garden who didn't know what was happening he must been dead drunk...Dan Parker, the Mirror guy, said the next day that my performance was so bad he was surprized that actors equity didn't picket the joint. ...Finally the referee had to stop it-what else could he do? I was against the ropes with my hands down pretending I was taking a beating, and Fox had hit me about fifteen times with everything he had, which wasn't enough to dent a bowl of yogurt.(1)

-Jake LaMotta

On the night of 14 November 1947, Billy Fox's ring record stood at 49-1 with 49 knockouts. Meanwhile, Jake LaMotta was by any and all accounts the best middleweight fighter in the world, not to have fought for the title. Once, the night was done Fox was in line to fight Gus Lesnevich for the Light-Heavyweight Championship of the World, and within eighteen months Jake LaMotta would be Middleweight Champion of the World.

Fox lost to Lesnevich and slowly faded from the scene. On June 14, 1960, La Motta would testify before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee of the Judiciary of United States Senate, chaired by Estes Kefauver. LaMotta testified to having taken a dive in the Fox fight.

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2000-2934

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(1) LaMotta, Jake with Carter and Savage. The Raging Bull. pp. 161-162