It is Saturday night inside Madison Square Garden, and we are waiting for Jake LaMotta. Ring 8, the New York chapter of a charitable organisation dedicated to taking care of veteran boxers, is hosting a Hall of Fame dinner at boxing’s own shrine, and the Club Bar and Grill is boisterously full of men with broken noses and slicked, oiled hair. The smell of cologne is oppressive. But where is LaMotta, one of the guests of honour? No one seems to know.

A wooden plaque lies on the club bar. A small pair of ornamental ceramic boxing gloves – worn, old, with string laces, looking very much like gloves from a distant era – decorates the plaque. Beneath them, on another brass plate, the name Jake LaMotta is boldly engraved with the legend: ‘A true warrior who often took on bigger opponents. One of the greatest chins in boxing history. Middleweight champion from 1949 to 1951. Fought dramatic six-fight series with Sugar Ray Robinson. 83 wins, 19 losses, 4 draws, 30 KO’s’ VIEW FULL STORY…