as a middleweight in his first fifteen bouts, lamotta went 14–0–1 (3 kos) before losing a highly controversial split decision to jimmy reeves in reeves' hometown of cleveland, ohio. chaos erupted after the decision was announced. fights broke out around the ring and the crowd continued to boo for 20 minutes. the arena's organist tried (but failed) to calm down the crowd by playing the "star spangled banner".