Jake La Motta was a symbol of courage. As the Bronx Bull, hero of the slums and the man Marciano called the greatest fighter he'd ever seen, this sullen kid from the Bronx who rarely laughed or smiled and never talked unless he had to, survived by a simple code - "hit'em first and hit'em hard." He vowed he would make it in this world or die trying. Jake La Motta is a man who refused to let the cheering stop.
If it is true that when God examines a man he looks not for medals but for scars, then La Motta, who in his sixty-odd years of survival has taken more hard knocks out of the ring than in, has more than earned the title Middle Weight Champion of the World, for which he sacrificed everything that makes most lives worth living.
The book takes a sharp look at the real Raging Bull, both as the controversial ring gladiator and as the older, wiser philosophically entertaining performer he has become. In the ex-fighter's own words, "this time [he] has fought not to be a champion gladiator but to become a champion human being."
