Suddenly hostile, Jake provokes Joey into hitting him in the face. Once Joey mollifies his enraged brother, the mercurial Jake laments that his small, girlish hands limit his ability to rise to the top. A few days later, Joey discusses a potential shot for the title with one of his mob connections, Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent), while on the way to his brother's run-down apartment in their neighborhood in the Bronx, where Jake is in the middle of a screaming match with his wife Irma. Jake's brother Joey LaMotta (Joe Pesci) is not only a sparring partner to him but also responsible for organizing his fights. Losing the fight by a fixed result causes a fight to break out at the end of the match in which audience members are trampled underfoot. A flashback shifts to his boxing career in 1941 against his opponent, Jimmy Reeves, in the infamous Cleveland bout.

The film opens in 1964, where an older and fatter Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) practices his stand-up comic routine before his debut at a comedy nightclub. Their relationship is punctuated by jealousy and paranoia on Jake's side, he who becomes to believe that Vickie is sleeping with every man to who she pays any attention, those feelings by Jake which leads to emotional and physical abuse. That personal life shown largely is during the time of what is his second marriage, to Vickie LaMotta, a girl he spotted in the neighborhood. Despite his boxing prowess, Jake, to reach his own personal goals, has to overcome his disagreements with what the mafia wants and his own brutish behavior, which spills over into his personal life. While not managed by them, much of his career is affected by his and Joey's mafia connections.

Managed for most of his boxing career by his brother Joey LaMotta, Jake has the goal not only of getting the title fight at almost any cost - the one thing he unwilling to do to demonstrate that he is the best and in his 'my way or the high way' mentality is to be knocked out, even if it is for a longer term benefit - but also to have the most fame possible, which means the improbable fantasy of becoming a heavyweight. The life of Bronx-based Jake LaMotta during his professional middleweight boxing career from 1941 to the mid-1950s, and his immediate post-boxing life is dramatized.

Raging bull in color