Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Jake LaMotta
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Jake LaMotta.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
I used to psyche myself out. Only, back then, we didn't know the word 'psyche.'
If I got a beating for something, I usually deserved it.
When I was a kid, I wanted to fight Joe Louis. But I think if I had seen Mike Tyson at that time, I would have said, 'Nah, I don't want to fight him.' He's deadly. He could have been one of the great heavyweight champions. But he goofed.
Lot of guys can take punches. The idea is not to take unnecessary punishment.
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
Everybody has a temper, but mine was set on a hair trigger.
When you break bones, they heal up and come back even stronger.
I was able to convince my body that I could take it and nobody could hurt me. I might've gotten cut, stitches over my eyes. Broken nose. Broken hands. But I never really got hurt.
There was only one thing I wanted out of life. That was to be the champ.
I'm the Godfather of Boxing. Everything is out in the open with me. What you see is what you get.
I fought Sugar Ray six times. Pound for pound the greatest fighter who ever lived.
I been in jail twice. The first time was reform school: they got me for carrying burglar's tools, something like that. The morals charge was a frame-up.
Something's bound to happen to you in a tough fight: cut eye, broken nose or broken hand or something like that. So you could make excuses out of anything, you know, but you got to keep on going if you're a champ or you're a contender.
I fought from the time I was eight years old, sometimes three, four fights a night. We did it to eat, and we did it because we were just tough kids.
There's no pensions for old prize fighters.
I was a sick animal. I was jealous. I was vicious.
The three toughest fighters I fought were Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Sugar Ray Robinson.
I wasn't born to be a fighter. My hands are too small, and look at these short arms.
I was a no-good bastard.
Besides being a slum kid with no great education in anything except how to fight and stay alive and steal, I also had this temper.
You have to treat everybody the right way. Otherwise, you'll have a short life. God bless.
People get in auto accidents, they're paralyzed for life. I got hurt worse getting married.
I don't know how to back up.
Most of the time, husbands and wives argue about stupid, foolish things. If it doesn't mean that much to you, give in to your wife.
Subconsciously - I didn't know it then, I realize it today when I know a little bit more about the mind and the brain - I fought like I didn't deserve to live.
I hypnotized myself so in my subconscious, I believed I couldn't get hurt. And I don't mean 'believe' - I mean believe believe believe.
I ask for personal appearance fees because I've earned them. I deserve them. My presence at events is what they need, so they ought to pay for it.
I play solitaire and wait for something to happen.
You know what's the greatest sin in the world? Hurting your fellow man.
Punches never bothered me that much.
I conditioned myself many years ago that nobody could hurt me.
Big money causes me too much trouble with my ex-wives and the government. All I want is to keep busy and to be comfortable.
I never went to church. The priests couldn't scare me with all that crap about hell, but somehow I knew, inside of me somehow, I knew that I'd pay for it.
I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did.
Boxing never hurt me at all.
I always needed money when I was younger. I had different ways of getting it. A lot of the ways I don't like to talk about.
You don't compare a guy with 30 or 40 fights with a guy who had 200 fights and fought over 25 years.
You can't go into the ring and be a nice guy.
I've learned a lot about life besides how to take a punch. And I've taken quite a few in and out of the ring.
Fear is unnecessary.
Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest, pound-for-pound, ever. He fought most of his career with just one loss, and that was to me. He had 131 fights with one loss.
I lost a lot of money, lost my wife and kids.
God's been pretty good to me. He made me duck all those punches that were supposed to land.
I fought Sugar Ray Robinson so many times, it's a wonder I don't have diabetes.
Most people aren't good or bad. They're naive.
Forward, always moving forward, from the time I can remember - a kid. I was short, and the big guys would take advantage; I had to turn myself into a body puncher. By that time I was in reform school, they'd have a boxing match every week; they'd bring guys in from outside to fight me.
There's a lot of people all over the world that talked about me.
I wanted to get punished, and I took unnecessary punishment when I was fighting.
Ask most guys what their ambition is, and they'll say they want to get rich. But when they get rich, they discover it's not what they wanted at all. I don't want to be rich.
I guess God blessed me with a hard head, because I really didn't feel punches.
Whenever I did have a lot of money, I got in trouble.
I forget stuff. Guess I took a few too many punches.
Even when I was hurt, I was always the aggressor, no matter what.
All my life I made a living out of hurting people. Now, I make a living out of making people laugh.
I fought in Detroit 23 times.
I had such a crazy life. How I got away with it, I don't know.
My nose was broken six times, my hands six times, a few fractured ribs. Fifty stitches over my eyes. But the only place I got hurt was out of the ring.
Counting amateur fights, I have over a thousand bouts.
You can't fight if you have any compassion or anything like that.
I made a million, and I lost a million.
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