Boxing · 1951 · Chicago, USA
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
In the sixth and final chapter of one of boxing's most brutal rivalries, Sugar Ray Robinson batters Jake LaMotta for round after round until the referee finally has to step in.
Robinson def. LaMotta, TKO round 13
Result
Robinson 5-1
Head-to-head series
14 February 1951
Date
Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta fought six times between 1942 and 1951, a rivalry so physical that LaMotta handed Robinson the only loss of his first 40-plus professional fights. Their sixth and final meeting, for LaMotta's middleweight title, took place at Chicago Stadium on 14 February 1951, Valentine's Day.
Robinson dominated from early on, opening cuts and battering LaMotta with combinations round after round, while LaMotta, refusing to go down, absorbed an increasingly one-sided beating rather than yield. By the thirteenth round LaMotta was defenceless against the ropes but still standing, and the referee stopped the fight to prevent further punishment.
The one-sided finish earned the fight its lasting nickname, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a grim pun on the date and the Chicago gangland shooting of the same name decades earlier. Robinson won the series 5-1 overall and the sixth fight is remembered as the definitive, brutal closing statement on one of the sport's fiercest rivalries.
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